Australians need affordable transport
Transport is a significant and unavoidable expense, and all Australians should be able to afford to own, maintain and run a car.
In the 2023-24 financial year, transport costs rose 10.5% – almost triple that period’s 3.8% CPI increase. The typical Australian household now spends about 17% of its income on transport.
Governments at all levels must consider these cost pressures as Australians face growing cost-of-living stress across the board.
The Commonwealth Government can and should play an important role in:
- Fuel price monitoring
- Ensuring that government transport investments are based on real need and underpinned by strong business cases
- Delivering transport emissions reductions at least cost
- Continued funding for Real World Testing of light vehicles’ fuel consumption and tailpipe emissions
Fuel price monitoring
The AAA urges the Australian Government to direct the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission to continue monitoring petrol and diesel prices, costs and profits.
Fuel prices are largely based on international trading conditions, geopolitical stability, and other factors. But margins are set locally, and consumers expect sufficient competition in local markets to ensure price gouging cannot occur.
The AAA’s member clubs monitor local fuel markets and provide information to their members on fuel prices, cycles and competition within the market. The Commonwealth must ensure that retail fuel prices are monitored, in close consultation with key stakeholders, including the state-based motoring clubs, and sufficient competition is maintained within local fuel markets.
Target transport investments wisely
Australians expect their tax dollars to be spent wisely and for public benefits rather than political purposes.
The Commonwealth must act urgently to immediately improve infrastructure investment in Australia.
The AAA urges the next Australian Government to act on all recommendations of the reviews into Infrastructure Australia, the Infrastructure Investment Program and the Infrastructure National Partnership Agreement and introduce a higher level of transparency into the investment programs.
Projects must be fully assessed against published objective criteria, properly costed, and capable of being delivered on time and to budget. Any project that receives in-principle approval for investment must then provide a fully developed business case before being approved for funding.
Requiring better data, planning, guidelines and assessment will add rigour to the infrastructure program. That will reduce cost and time blow-outs and ensure that the right projects are being delivered in the right places.
Data saves lives – and dollars
Any business case for new infrastructure should include assessing impacts on road safety.
The Commonwealth must compel states and territories to publish comprehensive road safety data as a condition of receiving any Commonwealth transport infrastructure funding.
This data would be used not only to develop evidence-based road safety policies, but also to evaluate the road safety benefits of any proposed infrastructure.
Least-cost emissions reduction
The AAA supports the decarbonisation of Australian transport but cautions that this must be achieved in ways that suit Australians’ lifestyles and budgets.
Measures to reduce greenhouse gases and other pollution must be equitable and flexible and deliver abatement at least cost to motorists and the broader Australian economy.
This requires careful planning to reduce emissions without unnecessarily or excessively increasing living costs.
Policymakers must be mindful that imposing inappropriate measures during a cost-of-living crisis risks undermining public support for decarbonisation.
Real World Testing
The Commonwealth can help reduce motoring costs while also improving environmental outcomes by expanding its support for the real-world testing of cars and other light vehicles to obtain accurate and relevant information on fuel consumption and emissions.
The Real-World Testing Program tests light vehicles on representative Australian roads and publishes its results so consumers, businesses and fleets can make more informed purchasing decisions.
Real-World Testing also provides policymakers with additional data to help evaluate the costs and benefits of new policy measures to reduce transport emissions – which could help avoid unintended cost-of-living impacts.
The Australian Government can build on the program’s benefits by ensuring that real world vehicle test results are made widely available to consumers through the Green Vehicle Guide, point of sale materials, and general advertising.
It can also continue funding Real World Testing with $4.5 million per year (indexed to inflation), as an ongoing program to keep Australians up to date with the changing light vehicle market.