Eyes in the ether make life easier

Illustration: Eric Lobbecke

Let’s blame Karen Jacobsen.

Civil libertarians warn of an impending surveillance state because the Victorian government wants to use data from mobile phones, apps and GPS devices to help improve its transport system. But the silky-voiced Karen would have us believe there is no risk at all.

Jacobsen is the Mackay-born, US-based voiceover artist dubbed the “Dashboard Diva” and heard across the globe on more than 400 million GPS devices and smartphones every day.

When she tells you there is traffic congestion ahead and urges an alternative route, Karen is working with the kind of information the Victorian government wants to use to improve transport.

After The Australian revealed Victoria’s plans, Liberty Victoria president Jessie Taylor declared commuters “should not be required to forgo privacy and freedom of movement” in exchange for a more effective transport system. But that’s what millions of commuters are already choosing to do every day. With the location setting switched on, our smartphones or GPS can send real-time signals about traffic flow.

Of course, anyone worried about Big Brother knowing too much can turn off the location setting. But if everyone did that Google Maps and its ilk wouldn’t work, and experience tells us that convenience almost always defeats ill-defined and inconvenient concerns.

When this data is reaped there are some privacy safeguards. They ensure the “who” is not disclosed while the “where”, “how” and sometimes “why” we are travelling are collected and collated.

But while using this kind of information can be fairly innocuous, it’s a harbinger of a significant shift in how future governments may charge you to use the nation’s roads.

In a 2017 report the Productivity Commission warned that road funding arrangements — primarily the fuel excise tax at a federal level — were unstable and unsustainable.

Revenue in real terms is falling in the face of fuel-efficient vehicles, hybrid and electric cars, which use little or no fuel, and even the advent of ride-sharing, at the same time there is an ever-increasing demand for government investment in road network improvements. Faced with this, an extremely courageous government could opt for a significant hike in the excise rate. That seems unlikely.

At present, most of the tax collected goes into general revenue. Potentially using it on road infrastructure and repairs might provide a medium-term solution, although that still means there would a shortfall elsewhere.

Alternatively, government could go down the path recommended by Infrastructure Australia in 2016 — a reform of the whole system. It called for all existing government road-use taxes and charges to be removed and replaced with “direct charging that reflects each user’s own consumption of the network, including location, time and distance of travel, and the individual characteristics of their vehicle such as weight and environmental impact”.

What that would mean is every vehicle — car, truck, petrol or electric — will be electronically tagged, putting on steroids the kind of information reaped by GPS and Google Maps.

We have the technology.

But any attempt to implement it would spark the same cries of secret surveillance and invasion of privacy being heard in Victoria, only much louder.

Despite the anticipated outcry and backlash, it is an enticing prospect for governments.

While today’s fuel excise regime includes variations for the type of fuel, rebates, and grants and incentives for certain businesses and industries, the Infrastructure Australia model would allow infinite versatility in charging.

A new or upgraded road offering a faster alternative route could be charged at a higher user-pays rate. Traffic heading into the CBD in peak hour could be hit with a de facto congestion tax also via a higher rate.

A community recovering from a natural disaster could be given tax relief by reducing the per-kilometre rate on their local roads.

Or a recalcitrant crossbencher, whose vote is vital to pass significant legislation, could receive a road charge tax cut for their constituents in return for their vote.

Falling revenue from the fuel excise tax and rising demand for road infrastructure are problems demanding solutions.

A user-pays system, using modern technology, provides an answer but with plenty of political uncertainty and likely pain.

But as Jacobsen reassuringly declares when you reach a dead end: “Recalculating” may be the only solution.

Scott Emerson is a former Queensland transport and main roads minister. He appears on Sky News.