‘Spend fuel tax on roads’

Petrol pain to return

AS HEFTY petrol prices return next week, Aussies are calling for the government to reinvest every dollar of the fuel excise revenue back into our roads.

Relief finally arrived for drivers this month, with prices dropping from the 14-year highs recorded in the June quarter – which at times topped 230c per litre – to their lowest point since November last year.

But relief will be short-lived for motorists, with prices due to jump by 22c a litre as the fuel excise cut introduced by the Coalition comes to an end on Thursday.

With the price hike looming, two-thirds of Australians are calling for 100 per cent of the money raised from the excise to be put back into road and transport infrastructure, new independent research found.

The report, released by Australia’s peak motoring body, the Australian Automobile Association, on Tuesday, revealed that one in six Australians oppose the end to the fuel excise cut if it means no new measures, such as reinvestment, are enacted.

Cost of living was the number one issue for 53 per cent of the 1910 Australians polled in the August study, with 10 per cent of those identifying fuel costs as their most pressing concern.

Health and climate change followed well behind, at 9 per cent and 3 per cent, respectively.

AAA managing director Michael Bradley is calling for the October Budget to allocate 100 per cent of the revenue raised by the fuel excise to go on federal funding of land transport infrastructure.

“High fuel costs continue to be a major concern for Australian motorists, who clearly expect the taxes they pay at the bowser to be spent on making their transport network safer and more effective,” Mr Bradley said.

“It is clear that a strong majority of motorists oppose a 25 cent per litre increase in fuel excise, but motorists are more accepting of this tax if they see it being spent on the roads and transport infrastructure their communities need.”

The end to the petrol tax cut is not expected to trigger an immediate price hike, with Treasurer Jim Chalmers assuring Aussies that petrol reserves will ease in the inflated prices.

“Fuel prices in most parts of the country at the moment are now around 50 cents a litre below the peak recorded in July,” Mr Chalmers said.

“Industry estimates that there (will) be more than 700 million litres of lower excise fuel in the system when the fuel excise is reintroduced.

“This is 700 million reasons why the price should not shoot up by the full 23 cents on the night that the excise relief ends.”

The federal government earlier this year refused to extend the temporary halving of the fuel excise.

The price cut is due to end on September 29.