NSW election 2023: Labor to scrap road toll administration fees

Labor has moved to appeal to NSW motorists again, with their latest election pledge set to save drivers millions of doallars a year.

Labor has pledged to wipe out “tolls on tolls” by scrapping administration fees for drivers who use major roads without a tag, in a move to reduce the more than 29 million notices received by motorists in NSW every year.

Labor’s latest election promise includes dumping the extra charges heaped on top of infringements for drivers who do not have an automated tag or whose tag goes undetected when travelling on a toll road.

Those changes can vary from $1.10 to $20 for drivers on a final notice without a valid account, with toll giant Linkt – the e-tag arm of toll-road operators Transurban – noting in a 2021 NSW parliamentary inquiry that 29 million notices were issued for NSW toll roads every year.

As part of the measure, Labor will also consolidate toll road notices, meaning drivers will not be hit with a separate fee for each toll notice – an approach used in Queensland which saves drivers more than $35 million a year.

“Drivers are being slugged tolls on their tolls. It’s adding insult to injury for motorists already paying Dominic Perrottet’s secret tax on families. It’s bordering on absurd and it’s got to stop,” Labor leader Chris Minns said.

Millions of notices handed out each year would be scrapped under the Labor plan.

“We can crack down on these fees, it’s worked in other states and it should happen here.”

John Graham, Labor’s spokesman for roads, said axing the extra charges was an important move amid rising cost-of-living pressures.

“The last thing that someone under financial pressure needs is to have multiple letters in the mailbox with extra toll charges piling up. It can often be the last straw,” he said.

Labor has previously committed to capping tolls at $60 a week for drivers.

Under the $150 million plan, a toll cap would be introduced from January 2024 for two years, with any tolls charged above the cap to be refunded quarterly.

Administered by Service NSW, the cap will be on top of the existing toll rebate and M5 cashback schemes.

If elected, Labor will ask former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Allan Fels to pursue the measure as part of a major review of Sydney’s toll roads.