Petrol price rise: Fuel excise starts today

NEWS.COM.AU
NOVEMBER 10, 2014

You won’t avoid price hikes, even if you don’t drive. Picture: Jack Tran Source: News Corp Australia
PETROL prices started creeping up on you today, starting with a humble half a cent increase for each litre you bought.
If the bowser price creep doesn’t stop, the excise rise which started modestly today — and which the Government wants every six months — plus the GST on top will make rises very obvious.
Motoring groups and the Labor Opposition are determined to make you aware that what started today as half a cent will quickly grow into a significant extra cost to family budgets unless scrapped.
By one calculation it would soon become an extra $135 a year, hurting low income earners in particular.
Today was the first day in 13 years the fuel excise has risen by the inflation rate. Under government plans there will be further rises on top of this one every six months, with the GST further adding to the cost of a litre of petrol.
Revenue from the increased excise will be used to help pay for building new roads, some of them toll roads.
There are fears this won’t just make family motoring more expensive but will add to many other areas of household expenses.
The NRMA, Australia’s biggest motoring organisation, is expected to soon release a detailed study of how the extra expense at the bowser will push up prices elsewhere.
The organisation, with 2.4 members, today ran full-page newspaper advertisements urging drivers to “say no to another fuel tax”.
“The NRMA is opposed to the tax hike because it will add further financial pressure to a section of the community that will already contribute over $15 billion this year to the Government’s revenues through the existing petrol tax,” said NRMA President Kyle Loades in a statement.
“Petrol prices in Australia are already the most volatile and unpredictable of all the essential commodities families rely on every day — on this, motorists look to their Government to make things better — not worse.
“That’s why the NRMA will fight against this tax hike. We are also encouraging our members to keep their petrol dockets over the next 12 months, because if the Parliament rejects the tax we want that money going back to the motorists who paid the tax and not oil companies.”
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten today confirmed Labor would vote against the excise increases when the Government attempts to legislate them into law.
On October 24 Finance Minister Mathias Cormann announced the Government would effectively increase excise by pumping up duty on petrol. Senator Cormann said the Government wanted to directly increase the excise by legislation early next year.
The backdoor increase in fuel prices was used because Labor and the Greens opposed a rise by legislation, and that is still Labor’s approach.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said indexation of excise would cost motorists an extra $19 billion over 10 years.
“Within the next five years, the average Australian will be paying an extra $135 for petrol every single year because of this new tax from Tony Abbott,” said Mr Shorten in a statement.
“Australians are already struggling to make ends meet with the cost of living — the last thing they need is to pay more tax every time they fill up the car.
“The regressive nature of the tax means low and middle income Australians will be hardest hit by the increasing petrol tax with a greater proportion of their income now going towards filling up the car.”
And Mr Shorten pointed to Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s pledge not to introduce new taxes.
Mr Abbott rejects this, saying the excise is an existing tax not a new one.