MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Senator ROBERTS (Queensland) (16:14): This week the government is introducing legislation to make a 16c a litre increase to the excise levied on petrol and diesel. When including the GST, which is levied on top of the fuel tax—it's a tax on a tax—and then adding retailer margins, this will cause petrol to go up around 20c a litre before the weekend. Every litre, 20c—kerching into the Treasury for Labor to waste.
This is occurring just when small business and everyday Australians are recovering from the high petrol prices caused as a direct result of the war in the Strait of Hormuz. Make no mistake, this is a tax on those who cannot afford it. Large corporations can simply pass this rise on to their customers—meaning you'll be paying more.
Small and medium businesses can't do that. They have no market power. They are price takers.
This tax rise will come straight out of what is left of their profit. Everyday Australians will find their drive to work will be more expensive, as will running around after the children. Even a simple day out, just getting in the car and going out for a drive, will be more expensive.
I know when One Nation promised a 50 per cent reduction in the fuel excise at the last election, the commentariat called that 'inflationary'. Then the government copied our policy and suddenly it's no longer inflationary! Which is correct?
It's not inflationary. Reducing the fuel excise reduces the petrol price, which is directly trapped in the CPI—the consumer price index—calculation. Lower fuel prices means lower inflation.
There is a second-round effect as well. Fuel is an input cost right through the economy, from the farmer running a cool room or ploughing a field, to the local tradesman, to the truckie who delivers everything we buy. When fuel goes up, everything goes up.
When fuel goes down, inflationary pressure is taken out of the economy. Reducing the fuel excise will reduce inflation. It's that simple.
It's proven. This is why One Nation promised, at the last election, to reduce the fuel excise by 50 per cent and suspend indexation for 12 months, with a review after that. Well, the government borrowing our policy for a few months has provided the review we needed to know that the policy is a winner.
Everyday Australians have enjoyed the lower cost of living. Inflationary pressures were taken out of the economy for a short time. This is why One Nation are calling on the government to not increase the fuel excise until June 2028, including cancelling all indexation increases, and then review it after the next election, which any incoming government would do anyway.
Give hardworking Australians and small businesses two more years of respite from the Albanese government's high—stubbornly high—inflation. Why do the government need to put this tax up? Because they're wasting our money again, that's why!
This budget included measures that One Nation would have put the red line through. I've already spoken about our policy promising to remove all net zero spending, including the department itself, loans, grants and associated boondoggles. We've already announced all spending on the Aboriginal industry will be terminated.
Instead, One Nation will give grants directly to local government to build the homes and roads and provide maintenance and support to Aboriginal communities. We've already announced that Snowy Hydro 2.0 will be terminated and taxpayers saved from a financial disaster which may reach $1 trillion for capital costs, interest, maintenance and subsidies for the tiny amount of electricity the project will generate in the period the construction loans are being paid back.
The budget set aside $3.8 billion for Victoria's Suburban Rail Loop. The Victorian Parliamentary Budget Office has put the cost of this project at $216 billion over a 50-year finance cycle. This is an insane project.
Even Victorians don't want it. It's there to put money into the pockets of corrupt union bosses and assorted underworld figures, as 60 Minutes clearly showed last night. One Nation would terminate that project.
We will have more policy announcements in the months ahead. For today's debate, let me say this: the Albanese government needs to stop overtaxing everyday Australians so it can funnel money to its mates in the unions, to the renewable solar and wind industry, academia and other costly lefty nonsense causes—spending that does not benefit everyday Australians and certainly benefits the Labor Party's election campaign funds.
Labor is making life harder during a severe cost-of-living crisis. One Nation will put more money back in people's pockets, starting with a freeze on fuel excises until 2028.