Public interest not political interest must decide toll road charges

February 18, 2026 — 5:00am

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Some of Sydney’s road tolls have long had a feint political taste.

Labor promised to abolish tolls to assist economically disadvantaged residents of western Sydney, and won the seats of Parramatta and Penrith in 1991, and the Blue Mountains and Badgerys Creek in 1995. However, the motorway agreements made it so expensive that cashback schemes were invented, and they linger today, expensive, unfair and still encouraging car use over public transport.

Fast forward to 2026 and targeting cheaper motor tolls in user-friendly electorates is not only politically audacious but the kind of pork barrelling usually associated with governments too long in power.

The Minns government has not even served one term, but ministerial staff have been revealed demanding NSW transport bureaucrats model the effect of a toll shake-up on Sydney’s motorways across state electorates.

The Herald‘s transport and infrastructure editor Matt O’Sullivan reported that the request for this work, and senior transport officials’ efforts to respond, are contained in a trove of emails between Transport for NSW officials and consultants being sent amid long-running negotiations between the government and Transurban over changes to toll pricing.

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Transport officials were asked to “assess the 2026 toll burden across all options on an electorate zoning basis”.

In one instance, Transport Minister John Graham’s office emailed NSW Motorways to ask if it could “provide advice on how much of the $60 toll relief has been provided to motorists in the state seat of Kiama” just six weeks before the Kiama byelection.

Centre for Public Integrity director Geoffrey Watson, SC, said it was “completely inappropriate” for the minister’s office to ask the department to conduct modelling on an electorate basis. “The public interest is not reflected in distorting outcomes for political interests. In fact, that’s the embodiment of an improper purpose,” Watson said.

Opposition transport spokeswoman Natalie Ward said that ordering the use of taxpayer resources to model how different toll reform options affected electorates was an improper use of public resources and a potential breach of public trust. “It is a blatant improper use of public resources at the direction of a minister to pursue political objectives. Electorates are only relevant to understand political objectives, and using taxpayer funds to do it isn’t in the public interest or good public policy.”

Transport for NSW told this masthead that providing data analysis broken down by suburb, postcode and local government area was standard practice between departments and the NSW government.

Transport makes no mention of data by state electorate.

The toll system has evolved into such a mess that the Minns government has been negotiating with Transurban and other large investors about a shake-up of tolling contracts since July 2024. Nothing concrete has been made public.

The government has been working on plans to split a shake-up of pricing for Sydney’s toll roads into two stages.

But the naked politics of reforming the system according to electorates is assuredly not the way to go.

Such decisions must be based on public need, not politics.

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© The Sydney Morning Herald