AANT Ben Haythorpe on fuel excise discount cut

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Earlier this week that fuel excise discount it was halved,
with drivers now saving around nine dollars a tank compared
to eighteen. It did only take twenty four hours for
that change to really be passed on to motorists. And
it's going to stay that way or we will start
to see those prices rise again. Now joining us, I

(00:20):
guess we're all hoping it'll stay that way rather than
those prices rising further. But joining us on the line
is Ben haythorpe Aaentt's Advocacy and Community Engagement Senior Manager.
Good morning Ben.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Good morning Katie. How are you yeah?

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Really well? Hey Ben, did you expect to see those
prices rise so quickly?

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Well? I expect them to jump a bit higher actually,
and so you know it could have a bit of
good news for a Friday.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
I think you thought they were going to go up further.
And I suppose it's been interesting to see over the
last couple of days. I sort of started to take
note of the petrol prices again and you could see
when you go on the Australian Institute of Petrolea that
you know, the terminal gate prices were going up. You
can see them starting to rise, really, couldn't you right

(01:07):
from when that excise.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Was halved exactly. Yes, you're right, but not as much
as we'd thought. No, so well in the retail sense,
that definitely. You know, if we remember back to when
it was first proposed is cut, you know, we thought
it would take a while, but it was pretty instant,
and then the opposite has just happened. So I thought

(01:30):
they would jump by sixteen cents pretty much straight away,
but they haven't so around you know, darn at the moment,
you're still getting quite cheap fueled. You know, it hasn't
jumped sixteen percent sense, it's more like six cents to
be honest.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, And so what do you think we'll sort of
see over the coming days. Are we anticipating that it's
going to sort of go up further or do you
think that it could stay static for the time being.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah. You mentioned the terminal gate prices and that they
have gone up, So what's going to happen is the
retailers will start to match that. And my prediction is
that petro prices will creep up slowly in the coming days,
same with diesel as well. But the good news is
there's huge disparity in the market at the moment. You know,

(02:14):
there's like ten cents difference with what you can pay
in some petrol stations versus others. So you know, the
advice definitely is you know, shop around.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, and what I mean, do you think we need
to sort of try to brace for that discount to disappear.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
Look, it is really interesting because even if you look
at Brent crude, you know, internationally, that's still continuing to drop.
So you know, the demand around the world that oil
does seem to have lessened, and so as a result,
prices are coming down internationally as well. So you know,
I think we're over the worst of it, but hey,

(02:53):
you know, I don't want to count much of it
just yet.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Hey, I know, the negotiations of course, but in the
US and Iran remain ongoing as well. I'd imagine really,
you know, like while there are some positive signs, certainly
that uncertainty is probably going to stay in place for
a little while while we continue to have these issues overseas.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yeah, definitely, But the good news is, you know, if
we go back and look at reserves, you know, Australia
does have really good reserves of both petrol and diesel
at the moment. You know, we were worried about that
at the beginning of this crisis, and you know, the
government has maintained so there's no shortage of fuel. It's
just a matter of how much we're going to be paying.
But you know, like I say, early signs at the

(03:39):
moment is quite good. And you know, so hopefully those
increases are going to be slow rather than big jumps.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Let's hope so well. Ben Haythorpe Ant Senior Manager, Advocacy
and Community Engagement. Good to catch up with you as always.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
You too, Katie, Thanks we Ben

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Thanks so much, you too.