Teal MP Monique Ryan has taken aim at Australia’s obsession with monster utes and SUVs, urging the government to close a tax loophole she says is fuelling the rise of bigger, heavier and more dangerous vehicles.
‘Large SUVs and utes are 82 per cent more likely to kill children in collisions, 44 per cent more likely to kill adult pedestrians or cyclists,’ she said.
‘They damage our roads and add to air pollution, harming our health,’ she said.
‘There are twice as many utes as tradies in Australia. We need to remove the luxury car tax exemption, which incentivises people to buy mega-utes instead of safer, cleaner, smaller cars and SUVs.’
Under Australia’s luxury car tax, a 33 per cent levy applies to the portion of a vehicle’s price above about $77,000 for most cars, or around $89,000 for fuel-efficient models.
Yet many large dual-cab utes escape the tax entirely, even when they cost well over $100,000, because they are classified as commercial vehicles rather than passenger cars.
Critics like Dr Ryan argue the rule was designed to help genuine work vehicles but has morphed into a loophole that encourages the everyday use of oversized, high-polluting utes, while smaller electric cars and hybrids are slugged with the tax once they cross the luxury threshold.
Introduced in 2000 to protect Australia’s local car industry and target high-end imports, the luxury car tax has barely been updated since domestic manufacturing shut down.
Teal MP Monique Ryan has taken aim at Australia’s love affair with ever-bigger vehicles
The teal MP says mega-utes escape a tax designed for luxury cars despite often costing more than $80,000 – a loophole she calls outdated and dangerous as pedestrian deaths hit a 17-year high
Opponents now argue the thresholds are badly out of date, unfairly penalising hybrid and electric vehicles while leaving utes untouched under commercial vehicle rules.
Ryan also highlighted a recent report that pedestrian deaths in Victoria in 2025 are at a 17-year high, amid fears the dominance of larger vehicles is undoing years of progress.
Fifty-one pedestrians had been killed on Victorian roads as of Saturday, the highest number recorded in a calendar year since 2008, according to Transport Accident Commission data.
Melbourne University transport safety researcher Milad Haghani said that the growing size of vehicles on Australian roads was driving a nationwide rise in pedestrian deaths.
‘Pedestrians struck by SUVs are about 25 per cent more likely to sustain serious injuries and 40–45 per cent more likely to die than those hit by smaller cars.
‘For children, the outcomes are far worse: they are up to eight times more likely to die when hit by an SUV than by a small car.
‘Each 10cm increase in front-end height raises the fatality risk for pedestrians by roughly 20 per cent.’
