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Comment by jussij | Hacker News Reader

In 2023, Australian full battery electric vehicles made up 7.2 per cent of all new vehicles sold, compared with 3.1 per cent in 2022. That is despite a decade of EV denial by one particular side of Australia government, meaning EV re-charging infrastructure in Australia is still decades behind the rest of the developed world.

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Why do Australians think EV chargers should be provided by government? Petrol stations aren’t.

Because investing in infrastructure (of many types) often carries with it capital expenses and have low returns that are unbearable for most potential market players but once in place allow the provisioning of services who are very useful to the population.

In this case, nobody was going to build EV chargers if there were no EVs on the road and nobody would buy an EV if there were no chargers on the road. Stepping in and giving the initial incentive to break that cycle is what this type of intervention, such as subsidies, does.

But people have bought EVs despite the lack of public chargers, both in Australia and all over the world, so that’s clearly not the full story.

And why do Australians think governments should build power distribution systems? Why can't we leave that up to private enterprise?

And why do Australians think governments should fund the building and upkeep of federal highways? Why can't we leave that up to private enterprise?

Surely the best option is to make sure every public road is a toll road. That Liberal Party approach to road building has worked great in NSW.

Toll Holdings is now one of the most profitable companies in the world, thanks to a Liberal NSW government turning every major NSW 'public' road into a Toll Holding toll road.

That's how good government works, making sure the public pay tooth and nail for a 'public' road as that helps out the donors and the shareholders.

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