RISING Sydney tolls are making car trips harder for regional motorists to afford, according to member for Orange Phil Donato.
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Mr Donato issued a notice of motion to the parliament on Wednesday afternoon, calling for the M4 toll to be scrapped to allow motorists free and direct access to the capital city.
The M4 was a toll road until 2010, but charges were reintroduced last month to cover widening work between Parramatta and Homebush as part of WestConnex.
The toll ranges from $1.77 to $4.56 for the 7.5-kilometre stretch, depending on the distance travelled.
Mr Donato said constituents had raised concerns, particularly those who were elderly and needed to travel to Sydney for specialist or other medical appointments.
“It doesn’t seem a lot of money, $8 a round trip, but it all adds up,” he said.
“The M4 roadway system is a primary roadway for entering Sydney for people in regional NSW, and this is just another tax.”
With tolls on the M5, M7, M2 and the cross-city tunnel, Mr Donato said costs could be more depending on the traveller’s route.
“When I go to parliament, my expense is about $30 in tolls,” he said.
“I know what they’re saying, that they provide infrastructure and build roads, but we have the highest registration fees in Australia and when I wrote to the transport minister in July in relation to the exorbitant cost of registering caravans, the response was it all goes into the roads program.”
With the Berejiklian government likely to sell a majority stake in the Sydney Motorway Corporation next year, Mr Donato said the problem was likely to worsen, with tolls to rise 4 per cent a year.
“Once it’s sold, you’re at the behest of the owners of the roads,” he said.
The notice has placed the motion in the agenda for debate, although Mr Donato said it could take months before it reaches the floor of parliament.
“Unless there’s pressure, this will probably go through so it’s important the community is made aware,” he said.