In Vanderstock v Victoria (2023) 98 ALJR 208, a 4-3 majority of the High Court held that a tax imposed by Victoria on the use of electric and hybrid vehicles was invalid. The majority held that the tax was a “duty of excise” which, under section 90 of the ‘Constitution’, only the Commonwealth may impose.
In this article, the authors contend that there is a lack of coherence between the majority’s approach to section 90 in Vanderstock and the High Court’s approach to section 92 of the Constitution since the seminal decision of Cole v Whitfield (1998) 165 CLR 360.
Sarah Spottiswood and Felicity Nagorcka’s article was published in the Public Law Review in May 2024 and is available here.
