The tax burden on owning a car and using it for transport is rapidly reaching " mission impossible " status. We are urged by the government to leave the car at home and use public transport, but the public system is already staggering under the load and if drivers abandoned their cars it would collapse.
The car owner is probably the most taxed human on this planet. After paying income tax and GST to the Federals government the state weighs in with a drivers license fee, registration fee, Green slip fee and the assorted fines from police and fixed camera revenue raising.
And it doesn't stop there. The local council imposes annual rates, part of which go to maintaining the municipal road system.
Then comes the cost of buying a car - which involves sales tax - followed by that most draconian tax of all - that imposed on petrol and diesel.
All that would be tolerable if it resulted in good roads that were not congested. Unfortunately neither city arteries or interstate highways come even close to meeting that criteria - and we are increasingly being forced to pay another tax to use them - this time a road toll !
The law prevents any government imposing a toll road as the only means of access from one point to another - but it does not prevent that government from imposing all sorts of restrictions on that alternative road to discourage use.
These restrictions can mean deleting a lane by nominating it a bus lane only, imposing no right or no left turn signs, lowering speed limits to ridiculous levels or implementing traffic calming measures such as speed humps.
The average motorist has every right to be enraged when this plethora of taxes - supposedly levied to provide a good road system - is siphoned off to other purposes.
In fact, an incredibly small percentage is spent on actually upgrading our road system - and if the present trend continues the day may be fast approaching when travelling between cities on any sort of decent road may include a toll.
The biggest single group of taxpayers in this country are car owners. It is about time that they used their clout to deliver a message to all levels of government.
They are fed up with poor roads, revenue raising " safety " fines, rapacious fuel taxes - and tolls imposed on roads already more than paid for from this taxation system.
It would seem that the slogan " No tax without representation " could well apply to motorists in this country !
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