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Politech is the oldest Internet resource devoted to politics and technology. Launched in 1994 by Declan McCullagh, the mailing list has chronicled the growing intersection of culture, technology, politics, and law. Since 2000, so has the Politech web site.
See Oregon's benighted plan: http://www.politechbot.com/p-04362.html --- Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2003 10:38:13 +1000 From: Moz <lists@moz.co.nz> To: declan@well.com Subject: (New Zealand) Motorists face travel tax and 'Big Brother' microchip law enforcement Hi Declan, welcome back. Note the quote towards the end "I think in the very long term all new cars will come out with some electronic identifier." http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2651803a11,00.html Motorists face travel tax and 'Big Brother' microchip law enforcement 07 September 2003 By MATTHEW LOWE Motorists face being taxed on how far they travel under government plans to generate cash. Transport Minister Paul Swain said with vehicles becoming more fuel efficient, revenue from petrol tax would drop and alternative charges needed to be considered. It is one of a number of transport schemes being looked at by officials, including a Big Brother-style project to equip every car with a personalised microchip so law-breaking motorists can be prosecuted by computer. Petrol excise made up $462 million of the national roads fund in 2001-02 but Swain fears the amount from fuel taxes could start stalling. He said taxing motorists based on the distance they covered would help fund roading improvements and the charges would come on top of any road tolling or congestion fees. "In the long run we are going to have to shift from a system of paying taxes on energy (petrol) to one based on distance, similar to road-user charges," said Swain. "Because car engines are getting more and more efficient the ability to tax the energy becomes less and less." At the same time, police and transport officials are looking at "spy-chips", which automatically report speeding, illegal parking, and vehicles that are unregistered or without a warrant of fitness certificate. Guilty drivers would learn they had been caught breaking the law only when a fine or summons arrived in the post. Officials are watching the development of an electronic vehicle identification (EVI) programme in Europe before deciding if it can be applied in New Zealand. The scheme has sparked concerns from civil liberties experts as vehicles could seemingly be monitored wherever they travelled. Civil rights lawyer Tim McBride feared the scheme could lead to an invasion of privacy. "There are some obvious public benefits but we should not give it any serious consideration without a thorough public consultation process." Under the programme, roadside sensors read a car's microchip and that information goes to a central computer system to check the car is legal. Those breaking the law are penalised. Swain said any introduction of the scheme would be some years away with other technological advances, including electronic tolling, a higher priority. "I think in the very long term all new cars will come out with some electronic identifier. "That will be there as a security mechanism as well as providing information about the vehicle and I think a lot of this type of technology will evolve through new car manufacturers." Police could benefit from EVI with computers handling the trapping and issuing of infringement notices to speeding motorists and it could be used to locate stolen cars. Transportation engineer Stephen Burnett, who advises central and local government on transport issues, said microchips could easily hold vehicle details but to cover law enforcement as well would come at a price. "There are tremendous benefits to be gained but that would also be tempered with what information is on the chip and who has control of that information." Automobile Association spokesman George Fairbairn said the technology could be used to charge people for driving at peak hours and on congested routes but it ran the risk of being like "Big Brother is watching you". ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------