Tom Elliott slams ‘absolutely ludicrous’ proposed city congestion tax

Tom Elliott has hit out at a proposed Melbourne CBD congestion levy.

Councillor Nicolas Frances Gilley, from the City of Melbourne, told Neil Mitchell a congestion tax is being considered.

The suggestion comes after the release of new data showing traffic congestion in Melbourne is the worst in the country.

“This bloke says the way to solve it is not to build more roads, not to work out a better system for traffic lights or something like that. It’s to slug the motorists yet again,” the 3AW Drive host said of Cr Nicolas Frances Gilley’s suggestion.

“The idea that we can solve our traffic problems simply by taxing people more is absolutely ludicrous.

“Motorists would have to be, along with property owners, the most taxed entities in Australia.”

Tom Elliott said motorists are already “taxed to death,” with a taxes making up a third of the total price of new vehicles and a third of fuel costs.

“Too many people, understandably, do in fact want to drive their cars, and a lot of them do want to head into the City of Melbourne,” he said.

“No more taxes, please. No congestion levy.”

Here’s a list of taxes and charges that you routinely pay if you buy and drive a car in Victoria:

• A 5 per cent import duty on your car, because we no longer have a domestic car manufacturing industry
• Luxury car tax if your car is worth more than $66,000
• GST and stamp duty when you buy a car
• Fuel excise
• GST on fuel and excise
• Toll road fees
• Parking fees
• Registration
• Speeding fines if you’re caught over the limit

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