As part of the Australian Government’s response to Infrastructure Australia’s Australian Infrastructure Plan, and in line with the Transport and Infrastructure Council’s Heavy Vehicle Road Reform Road Map, the Department undertook a public consultation process to seek public and industry views on options for independent price regulation of heavy vehicle charges. This consultation took place from 25 May 2017 to 14 July 2017.

To support the development and implementation of heavy vehicle road reform, the department will, from time to time, seek expert analysis on various reform components. The reports below reflect point in time analysis sought by the department, and findings or recommendations should not be considered indicative of government policy.

The Australian Government is working with state, territory and local governments, as well as industry and community stakeholders, to progress Heavy Vehicle Road Reform. This work is being overseen by Transport and Infrastructure Ministers.

On 30 March 2021 Infrastructure and Transport Ministers agreed to increase heavy vehicle road user charges for 2021-22 by 2.5 per cent. This will see State and Territory registration fees and the Commonwealth heavy vehicle Road User Charge (RUC) increase by 2.5 per cent from 1 July 2021 (noting Western Australia and the Northern Territory set their registration fees separately to national decisions).

Improve transparency around expenditure, investment and service delivery

The first phase of the Heavy Vehicle Road Reforms (HVRR) is focused on improving transparency around:

• road spending,
• road assets, and
• levels of service for heavy vehicle road users.

Fundamentally, properly functioning markets require informed users and road providers. The measures outlined below, aim to establish a baseline of information required to transition to the provision of heavy vehicle infrastructure as an economic service over the longer term:

The ultimate goal of heavy vehicle road reform is to turn the provision of heavy vehicle road infrastructure into an economic service where feasible. This would see a market established that links heavy vehicle user needs with the level of service they receive, the charges they pay and the investment of those charges back into heavy vehicle road services.