Federal Government falls short on promise to fix roads, by $3 billion

The Australian Government has fallen short of a promise to deliver 91 per cent of the fuel excise to road infrastructure programs.

According to the Australian Automobile Association (AAA), the government has spent just $9.5 billion on land transport infrastructure from a total of $14 billion collected from the fuel tax.

That equates to approximately 68 per cent of the fuel excise being spent on projects, compared to 91 per cent promised in the October 2022 Budget.

While re-investment of the fuel excise increased from 40 per cent in Financial Year 2019-20 to 69.9 per cent in FY2020-21, Australian motorists have been shortchanged by $3 billion, with that number falling to 68 per cent – and down from the promised 91 per cent.

Fuel prices have been soaring across the country in recent weeks – of which 48.8 cents goes to the Federal Government's fuel excise – continuing to increase pressure on household budgets.

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In September 2022, a survey from the AAA found 67 per cent of Australian motorists were in favour of the entire revenue collected from the fuel tax being reinvested in road and transport infrastructure.

"We’ve got a road safety crisis happening in Australia right now and part of the response we need is more investment in roads and maintenance," said AAA Managing Director Michael Bradley.

"Just this week the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics said the road toll was up 8.4 per cent in the year to the end of August, with some states up by more than 20 per cent and cyclist deaths up 37.1 per cent," he said.

"Motorists pay 48.8 cents in excise for every litre of fuel they buy and motorists expect every cent of that money to be spent on making our land transport system safer and more productive."