The peak national freight transport body has thrown its weight behind a plan by the South Australian premier for a national road user charge scheme.

Australian Logistics Council managing director Michael Kilgariff said a more open pricing mechanism more closely linking road charges with road investment deserved to be considered by all levels of government.

“There is growing consensus that the current system of vehicle charging and investment needs to be put under the microscope, and the premiers’ retreat is an ideal place to discuss this issue further,” he said in a statement.

Premier Jay Weatherill plans to raise the scheme and other proposed reforms at the leaders’ retreat in Sydney this month.

But the Australian Trucking Association was less impressed, saying plenty of work was needed by government before moving ahead.

There would need to be asset registers so governments know what roads they own and agreed service levels so the industry knows what it is paying for if the scheme is to proceed, the association said.

There would also need to be an independent economic regulator to approve charging proposals.

“Only then would it be feasible to talk about the last step, which would be a direct road user pricing system,” said the association’s government relations manager, Bill McKinley.

Weatherill pitched the change to roads charging during a speech to the National Press Club in Canberra yesterday.

Weatherill said he would take a four-pour plan for remaking the federation to the leaders’ summit, calling for reform to education, health care, roads funding and housing.

Under Weatherill’s proposals, state and territory governments would take responsibility for all education from birth through to the end of secondary schooling, with the commonwealth responsible for higher education and vocational education and training.

In the difficult area of health policy, he proposes sharing of responsibility with a focus on early intervention and prevention.

For road and infrastructure funding, there would be a a national heavy vehicle road user charging system run by the commonwealth.

State-based registration and federal-based fuel excise charges would be replaced by a scheme charging according to vehicle mass, distance travelled and location of travel.

Weatherill said that would charge according to actual road use, with proceeds invested in new roads and other works.

He said federal housing assistance did nothing to improve the actual supply of housing.

Under his proposal, states would access funding from the home owner grants and rent allowance, giving them far greater ability to improve housing supply.

As well, states would manage all direct housing and homelessness assistance.

He opposed lifting the rate of GST or extending it to food, but backed imposing the GST on financial services which would raise an extra $3.6 billion a year to help fill an $8 billion a year shortfall in funding for the states.

“I believe we’ve reached a point in the life of our nation where we cannot afford to put off this discussion any longer,” he said.

– with AAP