Australia’s budget can easily afford the few billions it would cost to cut fuel excise | Caleb Bond

When less happened to fuel prices on Scott Morrison’s watch, Anthony Albanese was up in arms, writes Caleb Bond.

Remember when then-Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese was outraged at the price of fuel?

It was exactly two years ago – November 2021.

“Do you reckon Scott Morrison has been to a petrol station lately?” Mr Albanese asked on Twitter.

“Petrol prices are surging on his watch.”

Accompanying that statement was a photo of a service station advertising 91 unleaded for 179.9c.

That’s veritably cheap these days. It is now not unusual to see fuel at 220c a litre or more.

Petrol prices are surging on Mr Albanese’s watch and he is conspicuously silent.

It is now one of the major drivers of inflation. Prices were up 7 per cent in the September quarter.

TELL US WHY IN THE COMMENTS

There are many reasons for this.

The countries that supply our oil cut their production earlier in the year to artificially inflate its value.

At the same time, we produce less of our own fuel and have low reserve stocks – there are only two oil refineries left in Australia.

And the majority of what we produce is exported.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visits Meadowbank TAFE in Sydney. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Former PM Scott Morrison during Question Time. Picture: Martin Ollman

Saudi Arabia and its compadres have us by the goolies so we have to pay whatever they demand.

Meantime, the federal government takes some 49c from every litre of fuel in tax.

A litre of 91 unleaded in the Adelaide CBD was yesterday about 179c.

Take the excise away and you’d be paying about $1.30 a litre. Now that doesn’t sound so harsh.

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart has now echoed calls made by me and many of my colleagues on Sky News that the government ought to cut the excise to provide immediate cost of living relief.

All it would take is the stroke of a pen and the government could wipe, say, 25c off a litre of fuel. But they refuse to do so.

It’ll cost too much, apparently. When the Morrison government halved the excise for six months it cost them $3 billion in revenue. In reality it saved ordinary Australians $3 billion at the bowser.

The Albanese government currently has a surplus of $22.1 billion. It can readily afford the few billion they’d cede in cutting the fuel excise.

And it’s not like the excise is used for its intended purpose – to fund road and transport infrastructure.

In the decade to 2022-23, only 59 per cent of fuel excise revenue was spent on land transport projects, according to the Australian Automobile Association.

The rest just gets absorbed into general revenue.

Contrast that with the fact that the Albanese government last week scrapped 50 road projects across the country, including five in SA.

For what purpose are we paying this extortionate tax?

Mr Albanese says cost of living is his top priority, yet he refuses to enact one of the easiest measures of relief.

Spending, which contributes to inflation, continues unabated elsewhere within the government.

We were promised before the election that our power bills would drop $275. I’m more likely to become a communist before that happens.

Instead of house prices falling, as economists predicted at the beginning of the year, they have soared because migration is vastly outstripping new builds.

The government not only has no plan to curb the cost of living – it is actively making it worse.