Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. For every litre of fuel sold in Australia, the government receives 52.6c in excise tax. We are in a cost-of-living emergency, and we must act now. Diesel has increased by over 55 per cent in the last month. This is devastating for regional communities like Mayo. Will the government suspend the fuel excise for 60 days to provide immediate relief for Australians.

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Mayo for her question, which I think does reflect a level of concern in the Australian community about cost-of-living pressures and particularly pressures which are being felt at the petrol bowser. Unlike the shadow treasurer, the member for Mayo has appropriately represented how the fuel excise works. It's applied per litre of fuel. It doesn't go up when the price of fuel goes up; it's levied per litre. The amount that the member for Mayo mentioned is the accurate one—even if the shadow treasurer didn't know that when he was asked.

When it comes to the excise, when it comes to the proposal that the member for Mayo has, it's not something that we have been considering. We have been working very hard to provide cost-of-living relief in the most responsible way that we can. The tax cuts which are coming—rounds 2 and 3—are an important part of that. Cheaper medicines, more bulk-billing, student debt relief and the like are all about recognising these pressures and to try to provide that cost-of-living relief in a different way than the way proposed by the member for Mayo. In fuel markets more broadly, we're working very closely, and as a team, to make sure that there is supply that people need, particularly in regional areas, and to also make sure the ACCC is empowered to go after any suppliers or retailers who do the wrong thing.

I do acknowledge that there are a range of views about it. The member for Mayo's question, I think, accurately reflects some of the suggestions which are out there. For our part, we're providing cost-of-living relief, and we're working as hard as we can in fuel markets to recognise and respond to the pressures that Australians are under.