00:01We've looked ourselves into all petrol stations in most states and territories, thousands
00:06of stations, just to keep an eye on what kind of an impact we're seeing on prices through
00:11this war as it continues through the chaos that you've described, but also as this excise
00:17cut kicks in.
00:18And what we've seen is, you know, for most of last year, right up until the beginning
00:21of the war, petrol prices, unleaded 91 prices, were hovering at about 180 cents a litre.
00:26The moment that that war began from the end of February, the beginning of March, we saw
00:31that shoot up to 200, 220, 240, really as high as 260 cents a litre a couple of days ago.
00:38Then the fuel excise cut kicks in.
00:41All of the warnings ahead of that happening were this would take some time to play out,
00:45days or weeks potentially, before we would start to see those discounts because the cost
00:53of fuel, the fuel that's already in the bowser, if you like, that's already been paid for.
00:58It's been paid for at the wholesale price without that discount.
01:00And so the thought area was it would take a bit of time.
01:03What we actually saw yesterday, and we can show you those numbers, is a really significant
01:07sharp drop immediately with stations passing on really the bulk of almost all of that 26
01:13cents.
01:13So we're continuing to track that discount.
01:16We've heard new news today that the states have agreed to forego some of their GST revenue
01:22that they get as a result of these higher prices.
01:24That's going to go into the fuel excise cut as well to fund a further cut.
01:29So from $2.34 is the current, as of this afternoon, national average price across regular
01:38and ledded across petrol stations in most states of the country.
01:41$3.07 is the current diesel price.
01:43You can see how fast that's dropped in just 24 hours.
01:48We'll now continue to watch this to see if that goes down by another six cents or so as
01:52the kind of secondary kick-in occurs.
01:55The question then, of course, is from there, what happens?
01:59Will that trend line go back upwards?
02:01Because the upward pressure, petrol prices have been going up by about 20 cents a week for
02:06the last month or so.
02:07Are we about to see that begin again if this war continues, if some of what Donald Trump
02:12was foreshadowing in his address today does play out?
02:16Is there going to be even further pressure on supply?
02:20We're continuing to track this.
02:21There's a story you can see on the ABC News website where you can see the latest data updated
02:25every couple of hours so you can track how things are going in most states and territories.
02:30Okay, so is there a difference between the capital cities and regional Australia?
02:34Well, there's usually a pretty big difference between different cities.
02:37There's price cycles that play out, fortnightly or monthly or weekly cycles.
02:42The regional areas look different to the capital cities.
02:44I've got to say, in the last month or so, Roz, everyone around the country is paying very
02:48similar levels of prices.
02:50There's been this sort of convergent.
02:52All those sort of ordinary price market mechanics have gone out the window.
02:56So what we're seeing on Unleaded is a pretty consistent national picture.
03:00Prices in both capitals and regional areas have fallen in the past 24 hours by a similar
03:05amount.
03:06Regional areas paying a few more cents a litre than the capitals, but it's a pretty broad
03:11picture.
03:12Again, we're going to watch to see, does that start to shift as this war settles in?
03:17What happens with it into the future?
03:18What happens with this further excise cut?
03:20Are those patterns going to return to looking somewhat normal?
03:24And if this does all get resolved and the supply issues go away, where do we end up?
03:28Do prices go back to where they were a month ago, or are they going to remain at a higher
03:31level?
03:31Many, many questions.
03:32That live tracker will continue to update many times a day for the foreseeable future, shall
03:37we say.
03:37Good stuff.
03:38Casey, thank you.
03:39Thanks, Roz.
03:40Thanks, Roz.
03:40Thanks, Roz.
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