Opinion: Toll roads are a scourge, but they could be a force for good

If we have to spend billions on toll roads each year, the generated profits should at least go to a good cause. 

Toll roads suck. There’s nothing worse than hearing that beep of a transponder – signalling even more hard-earned money departing your bank account – often as you slowly grind your way through a never-ending traffic jam. 

Cost of living has never been higher for Australians, who are being asked to return to their city offices, and are only well served by public transport if they are lucky.

Don’t forget: the Government peels 48.8 cents from every litre of fuel you pump into your tank. This is forecasted to deliver the Federal government $60 billion over the next four years. 

MORE: Toll Roads: I want a refund

State governments slug us with road taxes, duty on vehicles and stamp duties for billions of dollars in revenue. 

Government gets its pound of flesh no doubt, but we still find ourselves paying significant amounts of money each time we take a toll road in our capital cities. And more often than not, there isn’t a viable alternative.

Now, there’s an argument that toll roads – an abominable solution to a lack of planning – simply shouldn’t exist.  As more and more cars jostled for space in traffic on Australian roads, government plans and ideas couldn’t keep up, and the easy solution to privatise our roads (with the promise of fat profits) was taken.

In a perfect world, the sheer number of cars on the road (and the kind of stamp duty, excises and other taxes they generate) will be able fund all of the roads we need. But alas, our world is far from perfect. 

But who foots the bill? You and I, at a rate that’s going up by four per cent every year, regardless of whether the original costs have been amortised or not. 

New South Wales is the leader of the pack in Australia, accounting for more toll roads than any other state. Sydney motorists are spending up to $2 billion a year in tolls. 

Spending an average of $82.78 per week – against a national average (for capital cities) of $66.19 – is impossible to justify.  

Sure the challenging sandstone basin this Sydney is built on, along with the harbours, mountains, estuaries and rivers that make it one of the world’s great cities, make planning and building challenging and expensive. But, considering the engine room of the city’s workforce from western Sydney have no choice but to beep their tag multiple times as they plod their way into offices and workplaces.

I digress. What if toll roads are a necessary evil, something that we simply have to live with? Aside from boycotting payments somehow, how could we make something good out of the scourge of toll roads? 

Wha about giant sovereign fund? Something that betters the life of all Australians, rather than just those lucky few shareholders who own stock in our toll road operators. 

Most toll roads in Australia are owned by a publicly listed company called Transurban. While most of this company’s business is operated in Australia, it also operates toll roads in North America and Canada. 

It does enough business to develop a staggering market capital of $42.619 billion, and posted a huge profit of $92 million in 2022-2023. And forecasts show this profit will only grow.

The Australian Future Fund, our current largest sovereign fund, manages $255.1 billion in folding stuff, and this money goes towards a host of worthy causes and projects: a Drought Fund, a Disaster-Ready fund, DisabilityCare, the Housing Australia Future Fund, medical research and towards Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders. 

It started with $18 billion of government surpluses back in 2006, along with funds received from privatising Telstra. 

If these toll roads can develop nearly $100 million in profit each year for a company like Transurban, imagine what sort of good can come from a publicly managed, benefits-oriented company that wasn’t so profit-oriented. 

At least, every time your E-Tag beeped, you’d know the money was going somewhere good, and could even be coming back to benefit you or your family somehow.

But, the genie is undoubtedly out of the bottle and it’s hard to imagine a government of any persuasion having the balls to take back our roads and funnelling those massive profits back into the public purse.

MORE: Toll Roads: I want a refund

So, what do you think? If we have to have toll roads, should they be handed back into public ownership with the profits generated directed towards a better future for all Australians? Let us know in the comments below.

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