The Conversation · Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra · Monday 30 March 2026
The Albanese government will halve fuel excise for three months, cutting petrol costs by 26.3 cents per litre at a cost of $2.55 billion to the budget.
Two and a half billion dollars to shave twenty-six cents off a litre for three months — the fiscal equivalent of holding an umbrella over a sandcastle. Halving the excise doesn't halve the dependence; it subsidises it. Every temporary fuel cut since Howard's day has bought ninety days of relief and another decade of avoiding the structural question. The cheapest petrol policy in Australia is the one no government will build: an alternative to needing it.