By Barclay McGain and Ebony Graveur

For most Australians, an extra $28 dollars in the pocket every week wouldn’t go astray. For some, it might go towards saving a deposit for a first home; for others it might mean a stocked fridge or a healthy dinner on the table. It could be new school uniforms or after school activities. Sadly, for the average Australian, that money is disappearing at the petrol pump.

For something so openly talked about across social and mainstream media, the astronomical price of fuel—and the costing behind it—is widely misunderstood. Media and ordinary folk alike cite renewed international trade creating supply shortfalls and a growing tension in the Middle East. These reasons aren’t exactly wrong but a good chunk of the price of petrol comes down to nothing other than good old taxes.

With unleaded petrol sitting at more than $2.29/L, the average driver is paying at least $140 to fill up. Recent price hikes have driven up this weekly spend but, in every litre of petrol sold, the Federal Government snatches away just under 45 cents. Every time someone fills up the average 63 L tank, they’re paying a $28 troll toll to the government. Over a year, they’re shelling out an additional $1450. It might not be a lot of money to everyone but, for a huge number of families, it could be the difference between struggling to make ends meet and getting by comfortably.

During the height of Covid-19, it wasn’t the white collar professionals who suffered most under lockdowns as working from home quickly became the norm. Meanwhile, hospitality workers, retail workers, teachers, nurses and those working in trades continued to drive to and from work. Even now the lockdowns have ended, it is these workers who are most at the mercy of fuel prices.

The usual argument made in defence of the fuel excise tax boils down to one thing: road maintenance. It is true the fuel excise tax secures the federal government $49.3 billion annually in revenue, 95 percent of which is spent on maintaining Australian roads. But for this tax to be necessary, we would need to assume government spending has been optimised across the board, to the point where revenue from other taxes (GST, income tax) could not possibly be allocated to roads. Not a week goes by where the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance doesn’t stumble across a new slush-fund of government waste funnelled towards non-essential services like a $7 million sculpture of an emu or $63,000 glass door that switches between clear and opaque.

When most government revenue is derived from one area and spent elsewhere, the idea that a temporary pause or even the abolition of the fuel excise tax would send us back to the dirt roads era is absurd. Without that tax, petrol would be back under $2/L and drivers would be afforded a small amount of respite.

The easy solution to hefty fuel prices