The Nationals have secured a significant win to ease cost-of-living pain, embarrassing the Albanese Labor Government into providing fuel price relief at the bowser.

On Friday the Coalition called upon the Albanese Labor Government to halve the fuel excise for 3 months – delivering 26.3 cents per litre relief at the bowser.  Saving most drivers around $20 on a tank of fuel. The Government agreed to this Coalition measure on Monday.

The Nationals also called on the government to slash the Road User Charge for Heavy transport operators as well, which was 32.4 cents per litre.  The Government has halted the ‘RUC’ for 3 months, providing extra relief for trucking companies and others and – I hope – prevents price hikes at supermarkets.

The Nationals have shown our competency in Government by presenting sensible cost-of-living relief for motorists while also putting forward responsible offsets to ensure bowser relief does not further increase Labor’s rampant inflation. Labor have not put forward any offsets.

Offsets the Nationals propose include ending Commonwealth subsidies on electric cars and ‘green hydrogen’, and reining in the Home Battery Scheme.

The Albanese Labor Government’s fuel supply crisis has seen a surge in demand for new and used electric vehicles.  Green hydrogen is a ‘net zero’ 2050 pipedream compounding Australian’s 2026 fuel nightmare.  It is crazy that we have at least 34 billion barrels of oil reserves, yet liquid fuels make up 60 per cent of the total volume of all imports into Australia.

There has been a very low uptake of the Home Battery Scheme in Mallee, while wealthy households in the leafy suburbs of Sydney or Melbourne enjoy lower power bills thanks to Albanese Labor Government subsidies paid for by you, the taxpayer.

I, and my colleagues in The Nationals, are very focussed on you, on regional people, communities and economies.  One half of Australia’s energy demand is liquid fuels, and 70 per cent of diesel and petroleum use is by the freight, aviation, mining, agriculture, manufacturing and construction sectors.

As a party of Government, The Coalition knows what works, how to contain inflation and keep Australia moving.

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