**In short: **
The government has halved the fuel excise, reducing the cost of petrol and diesel by 26.3 cents a litre for three months.
The heavy road user charge will also be reduced to zero for the same period, taking pressure off truck drivers and transport costs.
Heavy road user charge being reduced is being underappreciated here. This is a good idea.
The excise reduction is interesting because there are good arguments on both sides. Lower cost increases demand typically but it will also go a long way to calming people down and having a net positive on society. Plus the bit where its slightly cheaper to try and exist.
I won’t argue with receiving the benefits, but I’m not entirely convinced its the right move. Its not simple.
I can see an argument that this will keep the same consumption of fuel as before in order to sustain the economy (and they are betting on supply issues not getting worse) but shouldn’t this then be accompanied with at least some other measures to reduce overall consumption (eg federal support for cheaper public transport or WFH options)?
Or maybe this is to just make people not “feel” the effects of the war to keep everyone happy?
EU member states took different approches: targeted tax cuts for truck drivers, or targeted 100 EUR subsidy for lower income households to spend on energy (fuel or electricity), or general energy tax cut for both fuel and electricity.
The idea being to either subsidize fuels for folks who must use fuel. Or subsizie energy in general so that both fuel and electricity gets cheaper, so that polluting energy sources doesn’t get more tax cut than electricity.
Lowering the price will just increase consumption and hoarding.
The solution to shortages is rationing, but the government is worried (probably accurately) that it will be unpopular.
This is a dumb take. No one who wasn’t already hoarding is going to start hoarding because of this discount.
By your logic the government should have doubled the fuel excise lol. Make it more expensive so it’s not hoarded.
Its basic supply and demand and well established
Supply hasn’t changed, nor has demand.
Also 90% of Lemmy thinks that supply and demand doesn’t have any effect on prices lol
That’s what the market prices are for. The taxes are for raising revenue and encouraging long-term behavioral change.
Sure but a sudden change in the taxes on one item are obviously going to lead to a higher demand than otherwise. Much like an economic stimulus package. Plenty of those people need support and can’t afford to pay more so doing something isn’t terrible, but if the issue is supply, which it seems to be, then you’re just going to risk running out / need to restrict usage
Actually, is there a reason they wouldn’t be worried about supply that I could be ignorant of? Last I heard a few tankers had turned away, people were preparing for a prolonged war and there were issues with rural deliveries
Govt responds to fuel shortage by pushing the price down, thereby increasing consumption and maintaining dependence.
This is fine.
Long term it would be bad. High prices help hasten energy transition and energy independence but the collapse of the Libs has left a very dangerous power vacuum.
Hopefully Trump dies of natural causes or gets the 25th soon and the disruptions in the gulf ends.
Meanwhile Labor needs to be seen to be doing popular things to keep the fossil fuel and billionaire funded populists to 20%
Government is always about finding a balance, not being perfect.
With logic like this from a dev I’m glad I’m never joining piefed.
I bet you fly the red ensign
Also, needed some fuel on the weekend for the mower so took up our 2 x 20L fuel containers we keep in the shed for the mower / whipper snipper to fill them up… Could feel the eyes as we dared fill up a couple of jerry cans. Obviously hoarding. After turning up in our EV…
Really surprised at the lack of anger at old Trumpy over this whole thing. Everyones so quick to blame “Albo” or “Labor” (“labour” usually) rather than… the bloke who is literally the one who initiated the conflict??
Anyway. Will certainly be delicious irony if this is the turning point for electric adoption.
Only an idiot would blame Albo.
However, I’m really raging that Albo and other world leaders won’t hold Trump’s feet to the fire over this.
Trump started it and he’s the only one that can finish it and the only way he will do that is if other leaders throw some shade on him for this idiocy.
Disarming a country that were prohibited from making nukes yet did it anyway, who wish death to us and the western world, is not idiocy. It’s idiocy to just ignore Iran and let them keep working towards destroying us.
Is hilarious that basically every former US president has continually warned of the dangers that Iran pose, yet sat idly by and did nothing while allowing them to develop weapons to annihilate us.
I swear half of Lemmy and the left would thank Iran for nuking them, saying they feel enriched by the nuclear fallout - yet they lose their minds over Russia invading Ukraine lol. Iran is a much but threat than Russia to the west.
You want Iran to have nukes and weapons that can destroy western civilisation knowing full well that they want to destroy western civilisation?
Also maybe watch Forrest Gump and then see who the stupid one is in that situation ;)
There’s only one country that uses nukes to destroy civilisation.
You’re confusing taking action with bombing
What other action do you think they could take?
Really surprised at the lack of anger at old Trumpy over this whole thing.
Don’t worry, I’m blaming Trump for this.
They’re not political you see
They’re at least gonna enforce servos passing the saving on right? They’ll fine any cunts their entire revenue since the war started right?
Since the fuel price is set by market forces (rather than a cost plus model), and the law doesn’t prevent price gouging in energy (those laws only apply to supermarkets) we’ll likely see a drop (or at least a pause in the increases) when it’s first introduced, but then the fuel companies will slowly wind it back up till they are pocketing the excise change.
So no - there’s no framework forcing the saving to be passed on to motorists, and in the medium term it will go to fuel companies, funded by taxpayers.
While it’d be a massive fucking bureaucratic nightmare - the Govt should probably opt to refund the fuel excise levy on a monthly/quarterly basis through the ATO & financial institutions.
While it won’t do anything to curb panic-demand, it would at least provide an avenue for directly reducing end-user fuel costs in a noticeable way.
Will certainly take the wind out of the sails of the usual conservative bogan types who have been making a big song and dance about how the gubberment needs to save them from our own over-reliance on oil.
That’s likely the reason yeah, even if it makes the problem worse given it’s mostly a demand side problem (for now). Functionally illiterate conservatives don’t know or care about that, however.
As opposed to the functionally illiterate “progressives” who think their EVs are made using sunshine and wind 🤣🤡
The irony of you not understanding that every single facet of your life relies on oil is just delicious.
How do you figure I don’t understand that?
Because of the comment of yours I replied to.
so retailers can sell for the same price and pocket the reduced tax. hurray for labor. NOT.
