00:02At the time that I've been here down at this South Melbourne petrol station this morning,
00:07I've already seen the prices just starting to tick up here on the board behind me,
00:13hovering close to $2 per litre for unleaded and breaking that $2.50 mark per litre for diesel.
00:21Now that is very similar to other petrol stations around Melbourne and just taking a look on the
00:27websites, it seems like it's a pretty similar sort of price range for other capital cities as well.
00:33Perhaps just a little bit more expensive in Hobart, a little less in Perth, but definitely
00:39a little more than what those prices were before this conflict broke out. And speaking to some of
00:45the motorists earlier this morning, many seem quite resigned to the fact that they are going to be
00:51facing more pain at the pump. It's a little bit disappointing. It would have been nice if they
00:56had have extended it for a little while longer. Nothing you can do about it, can you? Until they
01:01get their act together and Trump gets a deal. What do you do? I was surprised. I thought they
01:08were going to go down shortly. I only filled up half because it was $1.99. I was hoping it
01:11would be
01:12cheaper. And perhaps with that last gentleman, ignorance is bliss until of course he has to go
01:20back and fill up his tank once again. But we have already heard from Federal Treasury that these
01:27prices are probably going to continue to climb while ever this conflict drags on.
01:33And Steph, what's the Federal Government saying about why they chose to end the discount?
01:38Well, the Federal Government says that it's been quite clear that this was always a brief respite and
01:45it was put in place in the first point to help some of those really vulnerable motorists, people
01:51that live in the regions or don't have public transport or who rely on those sorts of high
01:58diesel prices in terms of their trades as well. And after four months, then they decided to make it
02:06half the excise discount, cutting it from 32 cents to 16 cents per litre discount, just to ease people back
02:14into it as a tapering off. But we heard earlier on News Breakfast from the Assistant Treasurer,
02:20Daniel Molino, about that. And this is what he had to say.
02:25The benefit was always intended to be temporary. And so we flagged right from the beginning that it was
02:31meant to help people with the worst of the impacts of that crisis, but that it would always at some
02:37point
02:37come off. And of course, there is absolutely no doubt that this would have come at quite a cost to
02:46taxpayers, an estimated $2.55 billion that was missing from the Government coffers as a result of this
02:54excise discount. The Government is also, of course, really firmly trying to push the line on the fact that
03:02it is increasing its fuel reserves here in Australia, which is in a better position than what it was when
03:08this conflict broke out. So in terms of not having any fuel shortages at last estimates, we now have
03:15about 42 days of unleaded in reserve and 38 days of diesel left over. And also, as well, of course,
03:24there is this additional sting in the tail for motorists that we have to comprehend too, because
03:30of the twice yearly inflation indexation of the fuel excise tax. So it's actually going to be going up
03:37to 53.7 cents per litre every time you fill up at the pump. So that's an extra impost, I
03:47guess,
03:48for motorists. And so the advice, of course, is to make sure that you do shop around.
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