VFF, De Bortoli Wine welcome Coalition’s fuel excise cut policy

Farmers say a Coalition plan to cut fuel excise will help regional motorists at a time of mounting pricing pressures.

Farmers have welcomed a pledge by the federal Coalition to cut petrol and diesel excise by 25 cents a litre, saying it will ease cost-of-living pressures beyond current fuel rebates.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton announced the excise cut to kick off the Coalition’s 2025 election campaign, claiming a two-car household save roughly $28 a week on average, or almost $1500 over the year.

The proposal would initially halve the fuel excise for 12 months but federal National Party leader David Littleproud said the excise holiday could be extended if inflationary pressures remained prohibitive into 2026.

Victorian Farmers Federation president Brett Hosking welcomed the move, saying it would help with off-farm costs not covered by the agricultural fuel rebate.

“Regional Australians drive double, tripe, quadruple sometimes as far as metro drivers, so their petrol bills are often far more expensive,” he said.

“Sometimes you see second-hand cars for sale in Melbourne, they’re five years old and have got only 40,000 kilometres on the clock, and it’s hard to believe for regional drivers.

“That cut to the excise would help with the expense of running the car or the ute that isn’t used for the farm, for the vehicles not covered by the current rebate.”

Managing director of De Bortoli Wines, Darren Di Bortoli, who runs one of Australia’s largest wine businesses headquartered in Griffith, said a cut to the fuel excise would help, particularly on the export side of the family-owned business.

“Indirectly (it would help), it’s one of those costs of production. Distribution is becoming a major cost these days, so there would be a benefit there,” Mr De Bortoli said.

Grain Producers Australia chairman Barry Large said a 25 per cent cut represented a huge saving for grain growers.

Mr Large uses 300,000 litres of diesel in off-road uses annually, “so this would be a big saving for us”.

“We’re getting squeezed, every time you time you turn around, someone else is having a sip of the cup,” Mr Large said. “But this would take a percentage off. It’s a good incentive.”

Mr Dutton said the excise cut would start “straight away” if elected on May 3 and insisted it would not add to inflationary pressures.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accused Dutton of copying the former Liberal government’s 2022 fuel excise cut.

“This is what Scott Morrison did in the 2022 budget but then it disappeared because it was time-limited,” he told ABC radio.

“This is time-limited as well — just for one year, no ongoing cost of living help.”