Australia politics LIVE: National cabinet prepares to meet amid petrol pain

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has not ruled out a reduction to the fuel excise today after the opposition last week called for a halving of the tax to provide some help to customers at the bowser.

On Friday, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor and Nationals leader Matt Canavan called for an immediate halving of the fuel excise, which currently sits at 52.6 cents per litre.

Asked on Sky News this morning whether a cut to the tax was part of the government’s plan, Chalmers said:

Our plan is all about securing more supply. It’s about getting distribution, particularly to regional areas. It’s about cracking down on rip-offs, and it’s also about helping with the cost of living in other ways.” 

Obviously, we have a range of contingencies and fallbacks that we keep under more or less constant review … our government is always looking for ways – responsible ways – to help people with the cost of living, to try and alleviate some of this pressure which is coming at people.”

This is what Taylor said at the time:

Families across the country are seeing their standard of living collapse, yet Labor does nothing. Right now, what we need is an immediate tax cut at the bowser and a government that gets fuel to where it is needed.”

Halving the excise on fuel and diesel would take approximately $12 billion out of the national budget.

State and territory leaders will meet with the prime minister this morning to coordinate the national response to the ongoing fuel crisis in an attempt to avoid a “COVID-style” response, Treasurer Jim Chalmer has said.

“The best way to get through this is to get through it together, to work through these issues in a coordinated and ideally consistent way around the country,” Chalmers told ABC News Breakfast a short while ago.

“The best way to avoid the kind of harsher COVID-style measures is to do that work. The better we do at the front end of this challenge … the more likely we are to avoid some of those kind of harsher measures and restrictions down the track.”

National cabinet will meet in Canberra this morning at 10am, AEDT, as federal parliament sits for the last time before the May budget. State and territory leaders will attend, either virtually or in person, alongside the prime minister and relevant federal ministers.

Chalmers went on to say the government had “a willingness” to support voluntary work-from-home measures to save fuel. He said it would be among a number of policies discussed at national cabinet:

One of the reasons why the prime minister has brought the states and territories together today is because we want to avoid harsh restrictions. We want to avoid those kind of heavy handed COVID interventions, and to make sure that people are doing the most responsible thing they can.

The better we do at the front end of this challenge that we have in our economy, the more likely we are to avoid some of those kind of harsher measures and restrictions down the track.”

Households have been warned that their weekly grocery bill could soon soar if the federal government fails to slice trucking industry taxes, as Anthony Albanese and state premiers prepare to map out ways to stop runaway demand for petrol and diesel.

Ahead of a national cabinet meeting on Monday morning that will be dominated by debate over how to conserve the nation’s liquid fuel supplies without replicating mistakes made during the COVID-19 pandemic, business leaders urged the government to target the transport system to ensure price pressures did not spread into supermarket aisles.

The federal government made the first of what is expected to be a series of announcements at the weekend aimed at shoring up fuel supply and reassuring Australians there is no need to panic.

Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt said on Sunday fuel rationing was “not on our agenda at this point in time” and urged Australians to “think about your neighbour” instead of hoarding fuel.

Read the full story here.