00:01What they had been trying to reach agreement on for a couple of days now is what to do
00:06with all of the extra GST revenue they were expected to rake in as a result of higher
00:11fuel prices. The total figure up until about the end of June was somewhere around $400
00:17million, which would have been flowing into states and territories because of those inflated
00:22prices. Now, what they have been discussing is how to use that to try and relieve some
00:29of the pressure that people are feeling as a result of those prices. It's taken a little
00:34bit of time, but they have this morning agreed to use that money to fund a further cut to
00:40the fuel excise, a 5.7 cents per litre reduction on top of what the Commonwealth had already
00:47announced and funded earlier this week. WA Premier Roger Cork had been leading those discussions.
00:53He's the head of a body which brings together all of the state and territory leaders without
00:58the Commonwealth to have discussions like this. Here's how he explained the arrangement
01:03this morning.
01:04This will mean cheaper fuel for families and farmers and businesses and it comes on top
01:09of the 26.3 cents reduction in the fuel excise that the Commonwealth Government announced earlier
01:16this week.
01:18So combined with that Commonwealth excise, the total relief is about 32 cents per litre that people
01:26won't have to be paying any more. And that is, of course, on top of all of the other
01:31supports which the Commonwealth and states and territories have been announcing to try and
01:35ease some of these pressures, including that billion dollars in interest-free loans which
01:40the Prime Minister announced earlier today.
01:42And so when is this latest change expected to take effect?
01:45Well, it needed to be signed off on by the Treasurer. We understand that has now happened.
01:51So it is in effect from now until the end of June. The fuel excise, though, isn't charged
01:56the bowser. It's charged a bit further up the supply chain. So like we saw with the Commonwealth's
02:02reduction taking effect earlier this week, some retailers might be passing it on quite quickly.
02:07Others might take a little bit of time depending on how they, I suppose, want to apply it. When they
02:13bought
02:14stock, how much they had to pay for it. All of this is, of course, tied in with lots of
02:18those
02:18other factors. It doesn't necessarily mean an immediate reduction at the bowser, but it is
02:24one other thing that governments are trying to do to try and bring a bit of relief to consumers.
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