VIDEO: Road Gold

'Road Gold'

21 October 2024

Four Corners

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Toll roads are a part of life for millions of Australians. For some it's pushing them to the edge.

EDWINA HEILER, SYDNEY MOTORIST: People just can't keep paying these kind of tolls.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: As the cost of living soars, toll prices keep rising too.

SIMON BARCLAY, BRISBANE MOTORIST: And you put on admin fees and other fees on top of that, that it seemed quite outrageous to me.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: What per centage of your income are you paying on tolls?

WALTER KOPPEN, SYDNEY TRUCK DRIVER: It could be as high as 20 per cent.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: 20 per cent!

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Skip the toll roads and you risk being late for work or losing business. If you fail to pay, in the worst case you can wind up being treated like a criminal.

PETER: These are letter bombs. They'll blow up in your face the more you ignore them. They just blow your life apart.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: There goes another toll.

MARK PIESSE, MELBOURNE MOTORIST: Yeah. That thing's beeping all day.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Did you ever imagine that driving on a toll road could result in you having potential prison time?

MARK PIESSE, MELBOURNE MOTORIST: Definitely not. No, no, I, I find it unbelievable.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: The company that dominates the toll road industry, Transurban, is earning record revenue.

MICHELLE ZEIBOTS, TRANSPORT RESEARCHER, UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY: Their business is not there for the public good. It's there to make money.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Decades-long deals struck with state governments mean drivers are forced to pay more every year.

JOHN GRAHAM, NSW ROADS MINISTER: The public deserves to know exactly what's in these contracts.

SHIFRAH BLUSTEIN, INNER MELBOURNE COMMUNITY LEGAL: People are entitled to feel a level of outrage that the taxpayer is absorbing the costs to protect a private company's profits. This is just a revenue protection issue.

PAT McGRATH REPORTER: Even the watchdog that's tasked with resolving toll disputes is funded by Transurban.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: This is not what I was expecting.

PROF ALLAN FELS, FMR CHAIRMAN, ACCC: To say the least, the Ombudsman doesn't look independent.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Now, Transurban's golden run is under threat. Even the man who helped build the empire wants to hit the brakes on tolls.

TONY SHEPHERD, FMR CHAIRMAN, TRANSFIELD: They can move, but only in tune with inflation.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: That's a remarkable recommendation from somebody who helped negotiate these contracts.

TONY SHEPHERD, FMR CHAIRMAN, TRANSFIELD: Oh, I know. Yeah. Well, we grow up, Pat.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: For decades, toll road companies have been promising shiny new highways at little cost to taxpayers all to be paid for by future generations. Now, that generation is here, dealing with the ever-increasing costs of getting around our cities on toll road systems that are almost impossible to avoid. Well, one state government is promising to take control and slash toll prices. It's picked a fight with a multi-billion-dollar corporate giant that has a record of getting its way.

TITLE: ROAD GOLD.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Edwina Heiler is dealing with constant demands. On her time and on her family's budget.

EDWINA HEILER, SYDNEY MOTORIST: You know, I've got two, two children and a husband and three dogs and a house to run and a job to do.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Until last December… she was working in administration at a school in Sydney's north. Driving there and back from her home in the city's northwest took two hours a day, most of the trip on toll roads.

EDWINA HEILER, SYDNEY MOTORIST: And if we add them up, I think it works out to be about $30 a day. Um, so what's $150 a week?

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: 150 a week?

EDWINA HEILER, SYDNEY MOTORIST: Yeah. I mean, that's half our grocery bill really. I can still feel that sick feeling if I hear the low balance beep, beep, beep. You know, you kind of go like, oh, and you know, the, the anxiety that it causes logging in to see 'am I overdrawn on, on my toll account?'

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: The cost of travelling to the job she loved became increasingly hard to bear. She was paying about 10 per cent of her salary in tolls, similar to what people in her area pay, on average, if they commute to the city for work. Edwina was facing a painful decision.

EDWINA HEILER, SYDNEY MOTORIST: I didn't earn enough to pay the school fees and cover the tolls and so I needed to find something closer to home.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: So, you actually had to quit your job because toll roads just getting to work became too expensive?

EDWINA HEILER, SYDNEY MOTORIST: Yeah, yeah. It just wasn't, wasn't feasible anymore to pay that kind of money in tolls just to get to work. Like, I'd have to work a day just to pay tolls.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: The New South Wales Government has since introduced a 60 dollar-per-week cap on toll roads. But it's a trial that will only run for two years. When it ends, motorists may be back to paying full price tolls.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Living in Sydney and living in this part of Sydney in particular, do you feel like you've got much choice around toll roads?

EDWINA HEILER, SYDNEY MOTORIST: No, not really. I mean, for us to get to the city, it's 30 bucks return. And same if I go down and see my mum down in the southern highlands, that's, I think that's about $20 now. That's, there's just, you know, the M2, the M7 one way, the M4, like, there's just, there's tolls everywhere. Everywhere you turn there's a toll.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: It's a feeling shared by drivers in Australia's three biggest cities where one company dominates the toll industry. Transurban. It operates 18 of Australia's 21 tollways. In Sydney, its 11 toll roads stretch 150 kilometres. In Brisbane, over the past decade it bought up every one of the city's six toll roads. And in Melbourne, the jewel in the Transurban crown. Citylink, its biggest earning road.

MICHELLE ZEIBOTS, TRANSPORT RESEARCHER, UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY: It's really very simple. They're just there to make money out of road building. And there's no conspiracy. There's nothing like that going on. And they just look at, you know, they look for those opportunities where they can pick up a bargain. They can pick up a tollway that somebody else built that went financially bust or they can, you know, support one that they're devising themselves, whatever that might be.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Transurban has secured its financial success by negotiating guaranteed toll increases of four per cent a year for most of its roads. During times of high inflation, like the past three years, its contracts with state governments trigger toll increases that match the Consumer Price Index, the C-P-I.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: In the past two years, its annual toll road revenue has jumped by almost a billion dollars to three and a half billion. Last August, Former Transurban chief executive Scott Charlton said that the cost-of-living crisis was delivering a windfall for the company.

SCOTT CHARLTON, FMR CEO, TRANSURBAN: We're creating this wedge. The revenue versus what we're paying on interest rates. At some point, interest rates come off but then that wedge will compound and compound for the next 40, 50 years. So inflation, particularly over a short term is very good for Transurban. We do understand it puts pressure on our customers and drivers and very wary of that and the hardship programs.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: It's not just the squeeze on the household budget. In Victoria not paying your tolls can land you in prison. Mark Piesse is dealing with this prospect right now. He's faced with toll fines that have snowballed into tens of thousands of dollars.

MARK PIESSE, MELBOURNE MOTORIST: I just think it's madness, to be honest with you. I just, I don't get it. I don't know how this is allowed to happen.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Mark is a plumber in Melbourne, spending hours each day on the road.

MARK PIESSE, MELBOURNE MOTORIST: Up and down here regularly. Could be, you know, three, four, five times a day.

PAT McGRATH REPORTER: There goes another toll.

MARK PIESSE, MELBOURNE MOTORIST: Yeah. That thing's beeping all day.

PAT McGRATH REPORTER: During 2015 and 2016 he didn't pay about 200 tolls. It's only recently that the consequences have caught up with him.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: And what was that time like for you? What was happening for you at that time?

MARK PIESSE, MELBOURNE MOTORIST: Listen, you know, I had a separation from a partner. I wound up my business, moved to a different area and, you know, there's a whole lot of things that sort of contributed. But it doesn't take me long to rack up 200 trips on a toll road because I'm, you know, probably going under those gantries, you know, 30-40, 50 times a week, you know, so maybe more.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: When the bill finally landed in June this year it was a bombshell.

MARK PIESSE, MELBOURNE MOTORIST: Up around the 80 thousand dollars. It's ridiculous.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: In Victoria, debts owed to the toll operators become fines enforced by the state, a privilege not given to any other private company. Loaded up with penalty after penalty, for Mark an unpaid missed three-dollar toll ballooned to a $340 fine.

MARK PIESSE, MELBOURNE MOTORIST: The original fine for the, the not paying the toll was $152. And we've got something, it's called a PRN fee, registration fee, enforcement fee, enforcement warrant fee, which add on to the top of the 152, which equals 339.60 in that case.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Times that by 200, plus a few other minor infringements and Mark suddenly owed an $86,000 debt to the state.

MARK PIESSE, MELBOURNE MOTORIST: I don't know what all these fees are about, to be honest with you. I have no idea what they're for. Even the fine I think is ridiculous.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: The bulk of Mark's fines were for trips on Eastlink, which runs through Melbourne's eastern suburbs and is owned by global investors including the Australian Government's Future Fund. His other fines were for trips on Transurban's CityLink.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: A lot of people would look at this and say, well, I pay my tolls, they might not feel that much sympathy for you.

MARK PIESSE, MELBOURNE MOTORIST: Yeah. Oh, well, that's, that's fine. You know, I'm on every, I'm on the toll roads every day. I'll probably spend close to 100 bucks a week have done for ever since then. So I certainly contribute my fair share. it's gone from, you know, 8 or 900 dollars to about 80,000. It's, it's unbelievable really.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Things could be about to get even worse for Mark. Because in Victoria, where toll fines are handled by the criminal justice system, he could end up in prison if he doesn't pay. His only hope is to convince a magistrate to cut him some slack, wipe some of the fines and set up a payment plan.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: I mean, this is serious. I mean, this is talking about prison time for this.

MARK: Yeah.

PAT: What do you think about that?

MARK PIESSE, MELBORUNE MOTORIST: I find it unbelievable for some, you know, outstanding toll charges that, you know, that's, that's an option. I just, I can't sort of comprehend that. I'm not looking in that direction, I can tell you.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: He says the first he heard of the monster debt was in June… when the Victorian Sheriff sent officers to arrest him.

MARK PIESSE, MELBOURNE MOTORIST: Two blokes at the front door demanding to sort of come and have a look at your house. And, you know, it was yeah, it was very intrusive. I was, I was pretty, pretty upset about it.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: The unique way Victoria deals with toll fines first appeared 30 years ago, when the legislation for Citylink, Transurban's first toll road was written. It was the first time an Australian government had allowed a private company to use the criminal justice system to chase people who don't pay tolls.

SHIFRAH BLUSTEIN, INNER MELBOURNE COMMUNITY LEGAL: I've submitted all the stat decs except the one that hadn't been witnessed.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: But what impact are these laws having now? To find out, I'm meeting with community lawyers who're dealing with the toll fine crisis every day. Lawyers like Shifrah Blustein.

SHIFRAH BLUSTEIN, INNER MELBOURNE COMMUNITY LEGAL: Imagine if you had a $100,000 debt that the government was chasing you for. This is creating massive anxiety for people, massive stress, creating all sorts of flow on effects for their families as well as the community, because obviously the government is picking up the bill for people's deterioration in mental health, physical health, and all the flow on consequences. But the reality for our clients is, you know they may not know what options are available to them. They're having to choose between putting food on the table or paying their rent and paying this toll fines bill.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Drivers who seek legal help do have options. They can apply to have their penalties waived if they've faced hardship like mental illness, addiction or domestic abuse.

SHIFRAH BLUSTEIN, INNER MELBOURNE COMMUNITY LEGAL: The clients that we are dealing with, it's, it's like an extreme level. They are not people flouting the system. They are genuinely struggling with very real issues like homelessness, family violence.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: What's the biggest debt you've seen for a toll road? How bad can this get for people?

SHIFRAH BLUSTEIN, INNER MELBOURNE COMMUNITY LEGAL: I think it was close to 400,000.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: $400,000?

SHIFRAH BLUSTEIN, INNER MELBOURNE COMMUNITY LEGAL: Yeah.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: How can it escalate to that level?

SHIFRAH BLUSTEIN, INNER MELBOURNE COMMUNITY LEGAL: I mean, obviously that person has been using the road a fair bit. Most people's aren't quite that big, but they, because of the way that it gets inflated from the original debt, um, it, they do get very large and, and they're completely unpayable unimaginable to people.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: The numbers really tell the story. The latest figures obtained by Four Corners show that last year Melbourne's toll road operators sent more than $236,000 toll debts worth more than $40 million to be collected as fines by the police, the sheriffs and through the courts. Well, this morning we're on our way out to Ringwood in Melbourne's east, to go to the Magistrates Court and see what that looks like.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Outside court, I meet Bruce Maybus, a roofer who is studying to become a commercial boat captain. He's clutching a stack of toll fines.

BRUCE MAYBUS, MELBOURNE MOTORIST: I've got $185,000 with Vic Fines.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: $185,000.

BRUCE MAYBUS, MELBOURNE MOTORIST: Yeah.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Have you got any way of paying off $185,000?

BRUCE MAYBUS, MELBOURNE MOTORIST: No, no, there's no way I'll be able to afford that at all.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Bruce racked up $12,000 in unpaid tolls and admin fees while battling health problems over the past eight years. But when the fees were handed over to the state for enforcement, he was fined a devastating $185,000.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: What do you think is going to happen?

BRUCE MAYBUS, MELBOURNE MOTORIST: I'm hoping for the outcome of it's getting squashed because I am doing the right thing by paying the toll bill off, which is essentially what it's all about.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Bruce is one of nine toll fine cases today. In the past year in Victoria 1465 people faced court for the same reason. His lawyer is granted a delay in his case so a psychologist's report can be prepared, in the hope his fines can be dismissed on medical grounds.

BRUCE MAYBUS, MELBOURNE MOTORIST: It's still a headache that's going to be there. And they said not to stress, but how can you not?

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: So, it's dragging on again. How do you deal with this?

BRUCE MAYBUS, MELBOURNE MOTORIST: It's just a weight that you carry around really. So you sort of get used to it but you shouldn't. I could probably end my life if I wanted to get out of it, but I'm not like that, so.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Has it really pushed you that far, this debt?

BRUCE MAYBUS, MELBOURNE MOTORIST: Yeah, yeah. But we're nearly at the end of the road, so hopefully I can move on and, yeah, start living a bit more life than always worrying about this debt that's hanging over my head.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Well, you don't have to spend long in here to get a sense of the burden these cases are putting on the courts. Time after time, the magistrate was quite happy to adjourn these cases or wipe out tens of thousands of dollars in fines for people who had a good explanation of why they couldn't pay. Which raises the question … is this the best way to deal with this?

SHIFRAH BLUSTEIN, INNER MELBOURNE COMMUNITY LEGAL: Why wouldn't you intervene much earlier in the system and just not fine people in the first place? Instead of fining them, then the state expends what we think is probably millions of dollars chasing people who are never going to be able to pay, only for the fines to be withdrawn, you know, at the pointy end of the system.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: The Victorian Government has attempted to fix the problem. Since 2020 drivers can only receive one toll fine per week instead of one for every unpaid trip. That's led to a sharp drop in total fines issued, more than halved since the peak of 600,000 fines in 2020. Despite this, the state expects its annual toll fine revenue to jump from $39 million to $65 million next year.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: The Victorian Government told Four Corners it's also introduced a scheme that deals with toll fines through counselling and volunteer work, instead of prison.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: There's pressure to pull toll fines out of the criminal justice system and treat them like any other unpaid bill. Shifrah Blustein argues the current system is designed to punish drivers to protect toll road profits.

SHIFRAH BLUSTEIN, INNER MELBOURNE COMMUNITY LEGAL: People are entitled to feel a level of outrage that the state, the the taxpayer is absorbing the costs of a system that is designed to protect a private company's profits. There doesn't seem to be any other justification for it. It's not a safety issue where, you know, you can see why we have red light cameras, for example. We want people to drive safely. But this isn't a safety issue. This is just a revenue protection issue.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Australia's toll road story started way before cars were even invented. In 1811, the first toll was charged for horses on Parramatta Road in Sydney. As cars took over cities, governments had to provide more and bigger roads. They couldn't always afford them.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Last century's toll roads were mostly built in partnership between government and private investors and handed back to the public after drivers paid them off.

MICHELLE ZEIBOTS, TRANSPORT RESEARCHER, UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY: They were only in private ownership for about 15 years and 15 years was over in the blink of an eye. Whereas now these roads are in private hands for many, many, many decades.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Michelle Zeibots is one of Australia's leading transport policy experts. She's been advising state politicians for decades.

MICHELLE ZEIBOTS, TRANSPORT RESEARCHER, UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY: You wonder, well, gee, how much are these things going to cost in the year 2045 and 2055 when these, these roads are still being run presumably by Transurban?

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: When Transurban started building Melbourne's Citylink in 1996, it became one of the first publicly listed companies solely focused on toll roads and replaced toll gates with new technology.

TONY SHEPHERD, FMR CHAIRMAN, TRANSFIELD: The road will be electronically tolled and the the way of doing that is by fixing a transponder to the vehicle and reading that transponder.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: There are few figures in Australia more responsible for the toll road system than Tony Shepherd, a business heavyweight and former Transurban director.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Has Transurban gotten too big?

TONY SHEPHERD, FMR CHAIRMAN, TRANSFIELD: Pat, I don't think so. There's efficiencies in scale and all of them, all of the toll roads they had, were bid competitively. So they didn't have a free run.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Today, Transurban and its investment partners own every Sydney toll road, except the Harbour Bridge and Tunnel.

SARAH SHAW, CEO, 4D INFRASTRUCTURE: Unfortunately, we do have a very heavy toll road-heavy network in play in Australia. And that's because we needed the infrastructure in place and governments couldn't do it.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Global infrastructure investor Sarah Shaw says part of Transurban's success has been its ability to convince governments to build more roads, without putting them out to tender.

SARAH SHAW, CEO, 4D INFRASTRUCTURE: Where Transurban has been successful is extending particular roads or expanding roads as cities have grown. As a general rule government budgets are stretched, so the best outcome for them is for the existing operator who has the expertise to undertake the additional works and, and in compensation they get either an extension or a toll hike or some form of compensation to allow them to get a return of the additional investment they need to put in.

DAN ANDREWS, FMR VICTORIAN PREMIER: A critical replacement for the West Gate Bridge giving motorists that choice, the tunnel or the bridge.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: In Melbourne, Transurban convinced the Dan Andrews' government in 2015 to extend its ownership of Citylink by 10 years to fund its new West Gate tunnel. It's taken the same approach in Sydney partially funding the NorthConnex tunnel by extending tolls on the M7 for 11 years.

TONY SHEPHERD, FMR CHAIRMAN, TRANSFIELD: It's a deal that the government wanted. So, what's the problem? But don't we like, I mean, we got to the stage now We don't like companies making money. Is there some problem with people making profits.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Well, I think people have a problem if there's no competition, right. If the company's approaching government saying here's a project and the government just agrees to it.

TONY SHEPHERD, FMR CHAIRMAN, TRANSFIELD: Yeah, Yeah. Well, they either agree or disagree. The government could say no, we're not going to do it and we'll go to the market. If that's what they want to do, they can do it.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: In a remarkable about face, one of the people who convinced governments to provide Transurban its guaranteed four per cent annual price increases, Tony Shepherd, now says it should end.

TONY SHEPHERD, FMR CHAIRMAN, TRANSFIELD: I think in new projects, I think we can eliminate it. Now we put it in originally because the risks were just so enormous. And that was what we needed to get people to be prepared to invest.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: I mean, that's extraordinary. This four per cent that's the kind of deal that you once negotiated. Now you're saying that's not appropriate anymore?

TONY SHEPHERD, FMR CHAIRMAN, TRANSFIELD: No, I think it's not now. I think now we've matured in the business, and I think now it would be better to tie it to actual inflation and be more acceptable to the users.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: In Brisbane, Transurban's the only toll company in town. Over the last decade it's bought up all of the six toll roads in Brisbane. All but one owned by the state government.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Driving around Brisbane, you quickly get a sense of just how reliant people are on these roads, but also what an improvement it's made for people getting around the city. There is of course a downside. And just like in Melbourne, the operator of these roads, Transurban, has the right to hand over its debts to be collected by the state. When you factor in administration fees, those debts can quickly spiral out of control.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Toll road users are fighting back. Simon Barclay has joined a class action alleging Transurban has gouged motorists with late fees. For years he put off buying a house and starting a family because of a hefty toll road debt.

SIMON BARCLAY, BRISBANE MOTORIST: It delayed our life plans. It felt like a a hovering invisible hand is effectively holding you to ransom for something you didn't know you were participating in.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: As a student a decade ago, Simon missed 25 tolls driving to work on Brisbane's Airport Link because, he says, his e-tag was faulty. By the time the bills arrived, each three-dollar toll had accumulated an extra 25 dollars in administration fees.

SIMON BARCLAY, BRISBANE MOTORIST: When you start to see you've multiplied the cost of the toll by 10 times to send one letter, one A4 page letter and you put on admin fees and, and other fees on top of that, that it seemed quite outrageous to me.

GREG WHYTE, PIPER ALDERMAN: One of the real terrors of the system is how it can run out of control very, very easily with just slight inattention or if you're travelling and, and if you haven't paid, you may end up with notices upon notices, fees upon fees. It seems disproportionate and it seems really unfair.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Lawyer Greg Whyte from Piper Alderman is running a class action against Transurban, the Queensland Government and Brisbane City Council, alleging the administration fees are illegal. He says the automatic $40 now added to unpaid tolls should be should more like $1.

GREG WHYTE, PIPER ALDERMAN: They are operating a very aggressive defence. I would like to discuss some aspects of their evidence in the defence in greater detail. But unfortunately, it's subject to a sweeping confidentiality regime that prevents me from commenting on anything but public court document records.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: So if you win this case, how much do you think Transurban is to pay back its customers?

GREG WHYTE, PIPER ALDERMAN: Well, we're still working out the figures, but it would have to be several hundred million dollars.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Transurban declined an offer to be interviewed by Four Corners and refused to answer questions we put to them. In a statement, it said:

ACTOR: "Neither Transurban, nor other toll road investors, decides the cost of travelling on toll roads. Toll prices in Australia, and how much they rise, have always been determined by state or local governments, as have the charges associated with toll notices and late payments.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Simon Barclay's toll debt followed a familiar path. By the time the toll operator handed it over to Queensland authorities to be pursued as a fine, he owed nearly $8,000 and had to pay it off in monthly installments.

SIMON BARCLAY, BRISBANE MOTORIST: Coming to the end of paying off that $8000, I could feel nothing but begrudgement really that I would be the victim effectively of something that was predatory.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Brisbane's low-income areas feel the sting of toll fines. Ipswich and Logan residents account for the bulk of Queensland's staggering $125 million in outstanding fines. We've calculated that for a person to drive daily from the centre of Ipswich or Logan to Brisbane airport would cost a resident between 9 and 13 per cent of their household income.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Former postie Peter saw this inequality up close, delivering toll debt letters in the Logan suburbs of Beenleigh and Eagleby.

PETER: It started to play on my mind. I realised that these letters that I was delivering to were to people who were, for some reason, found themselves in unfortunate circumstances. After I started noticing them, I was delivering to certain people in certain places, sometimes three a week over two weeks, sometimes five. Over the three years before I retired, I would have delivered thousands of them, I reckon. Thousands. These are letter bombs. That's the way I got to describe them. They're letter bombs because they just turn. They'll blow up in your face the more you ignore them. They just blow your life apart. Do you think you've got problems with Centrelink? Well, you try fighting these toll road people.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Peter once received a toll debt himself, so he knew of the dangers of ignoring these letters.

PETER: I really felt like writing on the letter, which we're strictly not allowed to do as a postie, I felt like writing on the letter. Please don't ignore this. I felt like writing it or telling it to them, which I'm not allowed to do either. But I did. A couple of times.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Transurban told us:

ACTOR: "If any of our customers are struggling with payments, we urge them to contact our Linkt Assist team. There are a range of support measures available, including more time to pay, debt waivers, toll credits and free support for broader problems they may be experiencing."

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: When drivers want to complain about toll roads, there is an Ombudsman. The Ombudsman is entirely funded by Transurban. We wanted to find out how independent he is. His name is Phillip Davies and his office is in this townhouse in Melbourne's inner north.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: This is not what I was expecting.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Well, this is apparently the listed principal place of business of the Tolling Customer Ombudsman which handles more than 750 complaints every year. But there's nobody home. So we'll keep on trying.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Phillip Davies can be a hard man to speak to.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Hi Phillip, it's Pat McGrath calling from Four Corners again. Very keen to speak with you and try to line up a time to interview you. So please give me a call back when you can.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Voicemail again. And that's a problem because we've been trying to contact Phillip Davies for weeks now and he does have some serious questions to answer.

PROF ALLAN FELS, FMR CHAIRMAN, ACCC: To say the least, the Ombudsman doesn't look independent. It's financed by Transurban and its track record is not great. Complaints take a long time to settle. We need a truly independent Ombudsman maybe spanning all States and also some kind of customer advocate function within the system, pushing concerns of motorists.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Phillip Davies, the Ombudsman, declined an interview but issued a statement. He said that for the past five years, he's worked from home or used a shared office. He said the office address would be corrected.

"It is an oversight the corporate record has not been updated."

On independence, he said his funding source does not compromise it… and that his role was "…structured very similarly to other industry-based resolution schemes."

And, he said, Transurban has implemented measures to maintain this independence.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: The New South Wales Roads Minister John Graham says the Ombudsman isn't effective and will speak to his counterparts in Victoria and Queensland about creating a more powerful watchdog.

JOHN GRAHAM, NSW ROADS MINISTER: We need something that's more visible, able to be of more help to consumers under pressure. When they've got those cost pressures, when they've got those admin fees adding up and they need a circuit breaker, someone to go to, they need an Ombudsman that can help them. That's what we're looking for here. I'm not satisfied the current system's working.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Transurban told us:

ACTOR: "Transurban supports and has long advocated for reform, particularly of toll notices to help people avoid accumulating outstanding debts, and of the toll road system in NSW more broadly, including the introduction of a customer advocate."

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: In Sydney, toll roads were sold as a solution to road congestion. Now they are being blamed for adding to it. Few know this better than owner-driver truckie, Walter Koppen.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: What percentage of your income are you paying on tolls?

WALTER KOPPEN, SYDNEY TRUCK DRIVER: It could be as high as 20 per cent.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: 20 per cent?

WALTER KOPPEN, SYDNEY TRUCK DRIVER: Yeah. If I use toll roads every time where if the opportunity to use it, I won't make any money. It would just be too expensive.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Governments saw toll roads as a way of keeping trucks off suburban streets… but rising prices are pushing drivers like Walter back onto local roads. The company he works for only pays for tolls when there's no other option.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Have you specifically been told not to go on toll roads?

WALTER KOPPEN, SYDNEY TRUCK DRIVER: Yeah, we had a letter to say not to use toll roads. Because if they don't, then they have to reimburse us for the toll roads. It would be nice if we could bounce this cost up the line.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: A landmark legal ruling three years ago mandated that freight companies should pay subcontractors' tolls, unless they specifically instruct drivers to avoid them. As a consequence, some major operators have told their drivers to avoid toll roads, pushing them into the suburbs.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Four Corners has obtained a letter that freight and courier giant Aramex sent to drivers in August, ordering them not to use toll roads in Sydney.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: The NSW Roads Minister John Graham says his government is aware of the problem.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: We understand there's multiple freight and courier companies in Sydney who have instructed drivers to avoid toll roads, that's pretty dysfunctional, isn't it?

JOHN GRAHAM, NSW ROADS MINISTER: Yeah, these are incredible roads, and they should be used more often. But sometimes the prices are too high, and that's driving trucks onto suburban streets. That's one of the impacts here. The higher price of tolls is making Sydney more congested. One of the real reasons here to reform this system to reset tolls is we can get more traffic in the tunnels, including truck traffic, but we can reform prices. If we get that balance right then that could be good for everyone here.

CHRIS MINNS, NSW PREMIER: But it's up to the voters in New South Wales. I want to make sure that voters know that this decision is up to them. But what they can vote for is $60 toll ap for motorists in Sydney.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: In New South Wales, Labor was swept to power last year with a promise to slash tolls… and quickly ordered an investigation into the toll road industry by consumer policy expert Professor Allan Fels.

PROF ALLAN FELS, FMR CHAIRMAN, ACCC: Transurban would like the system to continue forever, but they need a social licence and that social licence is diminishing quite heavily because the public does not like the very high prices and governments will have to step in and do something.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: His report recommended that the government should seize control of toll pricing from the road operators before the end of the year. But for the first time Professor Fels is making a startling allegation. A key part of his public report was suppressed. Financial modelling showing just how profitable the roads would be was kept from the public.

PROF ALLAN FELS, FMR CHAIRMAN, ACCC: There was resistance from the start about us seeing the contracts and the all-important financial models. But they should be public. We wanted to publish a lot more information, but we were blocked strongly by the three deputy secretaries involved and at the last minute they produced an overnight legal opinion from a firm they use. The main threat was I'd be sued for billions of dollars and possibly face criminal sanctions.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: In a statement, the Department of Transport said:

ACTOR: "It is the department's responsibility to provide the appropriate governance framework and highlight any legal risks to the state of NSW. As this is a complex and commercially sensitive issue, it is standard process to obtain specialist legal advice."

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: It's been more than a year since the New South Wales Government promised to make the secret key parts of toll road contracts public. The contracts for Transurban's roads in Melbourne and Brisbane are all already on the public record.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: That's an election promise that's getting pretty stale now. When will the contracts be made public?

JOHN GRAHAM, NSW ROADS MINISTER: Look, we expect to do that in the near future.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: This year?

JOHN GRAHAM, NSW ROADS MINISTER: We're obviously, look, it may or may not be this year, but it certainly it'll be in the near future as a part of this process.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Even Tony Shepherd says it's time to bring the secret deals out into the open.

TONY SHEPHERD, FMR CHAIRMAN, TRANSFIELD: Well, I believe that they should all be published. The Sydney Harbour Tunnel contract was published. The Melbourne City Link contract, all 657 pages of it, was published.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: NSW is now in negotiations with Transurban about Allan Fels' recommendation for the government to take control of toll prices. If they can't reach an agreement, the state may have no choice but to change the law.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Are you in a sense unpicking the legacy of your predecessors here?

JOHN GRAHAM, NSW ROADS MINISTER: Look, Transurban's got a stake in Sydney till 2060 under the private toll road contracts that have been signed by governments. That's just a fact that we have to deal with as we've come into government. What we do think, though, is that there's a real need here for a better deal for drivers. If we don't reform tolls, Sydney will become a more congested place to live. It'll be less productive than it should be. It'll have a real impact on people's lives, particularly in Sydney's outer suburbs.

SARAH SHAW, CEO, 4D INFRASTRUCTURE: Just to say if the negotiations fail that we're going to rip up the contracts and we're going to take control of tolling I think its got really significant ramifications and, and bad ones. And it really goes to the sanctity of contract, contract structures and the need for infrastructure investment. If they want to lower the tolls and not give Transurban anything they need to write a very, very big cheque and compensate Transurban for the lost value as a result of the tearing up of the contracts.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: As governments grapple with the expensive toll roads they've inherited, drivers who use them every day have no choice but to live with the ever-rising cost.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Mark Piesse is still waiting for his day in court when he will try to negotiate a payment plan.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: A magistrate granted Bruce Maybus another adjournment while he awaits a psychologist's report. But the magistrate warned him if he doesn't deal with the fines he faces a potential punishment of 940 days in prison.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Even as their cases come to an end, hundreds more are due to appear in courts over the coming months.

PAT McGRATH, REPORTER: Without a change to the system, Simon Barclay is worried a new generation of drivers will get stuck in the toll debt trap that held his life back.

SIMON BARCLAY, BRISBANE MOTORIST: I think it's ethically dubious that private organisations can leverage the government to chase their debts with multiplier effects tagged on to that, which feels like daylight robbery.