Community & Business
6 October, 2022
Local rush for fuel before price soars
LOCALS flocked to their closest service stations and tried to get one last fuel-up in before the Federal Government’s excise tax cut expired at 12am on Thursday last week, with fuel prices now expected to rise by more than 20 cents in the coming days or weeks.
The previous Morrison Government halved the fuel excise to ease pressures of the rising cost of living at the time, dropping the tax charged on each litre of fuel sold in Australia from 44.2 to 22.1 cents.
This drop was never meant to be permanent and last Thursday at 12am, the fuel excise reduction expired.
Mareeba resident Alice Brown fuelled up in Mareeba just hours before the excise reduction expired.
Ms Brown takes regular trips into Mareeba from her Narcotic Creek road property and did not agree with the excise returning.
“It is ridiculous, I do not understand how the government expects people to live,” she said.
Brisbane resident Tim Wolf has been travelling through Queensland right up to the tip and stopped into Mareeba on his way back to fuel up.
While Mr Wolf would like fuel to be cheaper, he said the excise was needed to help pay for road upgrades across the country.
“It needs to happen because it provides important funding for roads – you can’t keep it off forever,” he said.
As the price of fuel starts to rise, police have issued a warning to people who decide to fuel up and drive off without paying.
Driving off without paying for fuel can happen for a variety of reasons, but not returning to the service station to pay is a criminal offence.
In 2019, QPS began a SMS and email trail that targets vehicles suspected of fuel drive offs, it is still used today to remind vehicle owners to make sure they have paid for their fuel.
While the message will come from “Qld Po-lice”, show the date and time of the incident, provide the vehicle registration number and other methods of identification, QPS advises that they will never ask vehicle owners to provide personal banking and financial details or ask for a direct payment.
