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Speaker 1: Good morning everybody. Welcome to the Daily Os. Last day

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Speaker 1: of March for you, Thursday, the thirty first. We've heard

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Speaker 1: that there's going to be cut to the price of petrol,

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Speaker 1: but for a lot of us around the country, we

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Speaker 1: haven't quite seen them at the pump yet. Why we're

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Speaker 1: going to have a chat about how it actually gets

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Speaker 1: passed on to consumers like you and I. Before we

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Speaker 1: do that, Zara give us an update about the flood

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Speaker 1: situation in northern New South Wales.

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Speaker 2: It's heartbreaking to see this happening again, but floodwaters continue

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Speaker 2: to rise across the New South Wales Northern Rivers region

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Speaker 2: and one woman is missing in Lismore after the town's

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Speaker 2: flood levee was breached yesterday morning. In an update to

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Speaker 2: New South Wales Parliament yesterday, Acting Premier Paul Tool said

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Speaker 2: that twelve thousand people were without power and twenty eight

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Speaker 2: flood rescues had taken place at that time.

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Speaker 1: Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelenski has said that Ukrainians aren't naive

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Speaker 1: and the promised Russian military scaleback is likely just a

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Speaker 1: rotation of troops on the front line. Yes Today, Russia

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Speaker 1: stated it would significantly scale back military operations as peace

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Speaker 1: talks between Russia and Ukraine continue in Turkey. Zelensky is

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Speaker 1: expected to address Australia's parliament today.

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Speaker 2: Prime Minister Scott Morrison has claimed the best way to

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Speaker 2: support people renting a house is to help them buy

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Speaker 2: a house. The remarks were made during an interview on

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Speaker 2: The Today Show yesterday after Morrison was asked why there

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Speaker 2: was not more support for renters in the budget. Sam,

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Speaker 2: I'm off to buy a house.

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Speaker 1: And today's good news. A new US federal law has

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Speaker 1: designated lynching as a hate crime for the first time.

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Speaker 1: At a ceremony signing the legislation into law, Vice President

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Speaker 1: Kamala Harris remarked, quote, racial acts of terror still occur

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Speaker 1: in our nation, and when they do, we must all

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Speaker 1: have the courage to name them and hold the perpetrators

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Speaker 1: to account. In Tuesday's budget, the federal government announced it

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Speaker 1: would have the fuel excise for six It was one

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Speaker 1: of the big ticket items in Josh Fridenberg's budget and

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Speaker 1: I've noticed it has caused quite a lot of discussion

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Speaker 1: on social media. In the speech from the Treasurer, he

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Speaker 1: said the change would take effect from midnight on Tuesday, night. However,

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Speaker 1: he also said it would take about two weeks for

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Speaker 1: the costs to flow through to what you and I

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Speaker 1: are going to pay at the pump. This is actually

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Speaker 1: a super complex issue, Zara, our in house petrol expert.

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Speaker 1: Why is it so complex and why do we have

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Speaker 1: to wait a few weeks for it to make a

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Speaker 1: difference to our wallets.

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Speaker 2: Given that my car has had the petrol light on

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Speaker 2: for two weeks now, I'm honored to be a petrol

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Speaker 2: expert and not sure the mechanics that have to fix

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Speaker 2: my car often would agree. But anyway, let's start by

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Speaker 2: thinking about what actually goes into the price of petrol.

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Speaker 2: So the price of petrol is mostly set by factors

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Speaker 2: outside of the government's control, things like the global price

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Speaker 2: for petrol. But a percentage of the price is in

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Speaker 2: the government its control, and that is as you guessed taxes.

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Speaker 2: For a leader of petrol, the costs two dollars twenty

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Speaker 2: cents is the ten percent Goods and Service tax so GST.

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Speaker 2: Another forty four point two cents is the fuel X

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Speaker 2: size tax, which is a flat tax per leader. In

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Speaker 2: this example, tax accounts for a third of the petrol price.

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Speaker 2: So until the budget on Tuesday night, the fuel X

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Speaker 2: SiZ was forty four point two cents per liter. Now,

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Speaker 2: I won't go into heavy mats, but if you have that,

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Speaker 2: you get a twenty two point one cent per leader discount.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So I'm driving in my car right now. When

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Speaker 1: am I going to actually see this twenty two point

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Speaker 1: one cent discount come through?

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Speaker 2: Well, the fuel X size isn't actually paid at the

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Speaker 2: petrol pump. It's paid by the companies that manufacture the

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Speaker 2: petrol by refining oils. So in practice that distinction doesn't

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Speaker 2: usually matter. The manufacturers can and do pass it on

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Speaker 2: directly to the customer by adding it to the petrol price.

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Speaker 2: So it's usually the customer who really pays. But that

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Speaker 2: process isn't automatic and it isn't directly required by law.

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Speaker 2: It happens because of competition between manufacturers. Stick with me

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Speaker 2: because the idea is that, since the fuel xcise cut

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Speaker 2: is the same for every manufacturer, any manufacturer that decides

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Speaker 2: not to pass on the discount would lose customers to

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Speaker 2: those that actually do pass it on. If there are

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Speaker 2: enough manufacturers, take a shot. Every time I say manufacturers.

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Speaker 2: To ensure proper competition, customers should then get the full discount,

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Speaker 2: though there might be short delays, while all the remaining

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Speaker 2: petrol that has already been taxed at the old rate

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Speaker 2: gets sold.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so there's a little bit of a delay here,

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Speaker 1: while the old petrol taxed at the old rate still

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Speaker 1: is consumed by us, whose job is it to make

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Speaker 1: sure that this cut is passed on?

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Speaker 2: The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the A Triple C

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Speaker 2: is responsible for safeguard and competition and it monitors petrol

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Speaker 2: prices closely. So that's to discourage any anti competitive behavior

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Speaker 2: from sellers. Tuesday's budget papers suggested that the A Triple

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Speaker 2: C would ensure that the petrol discount gets passed on

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Speaker 2: in full. It's much like when we talk about interest

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Speaker 2: rates being passed on in full. In a statement after

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Speaker 2: the budget on Tuesday night, A Triple C chair Gina

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Speaker 2: cascottlieb and you'll notice that that is a new chair,

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Speaker 2: Rod Simms finished up his tenure earlier this year. She

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Speaker 2: said the A Triple C would set out clear expectations

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Speaker 2: that the savings are passed on to consumers and would

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Speaker 2: also inform consumers of retailer behavior. She encouraged consumers to

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Speaker 2: use price comparison sites to ensure they were getting the

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Speaker 2: best price. But like we just said before, the A

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Speaker 2: Triple C also acknowledged that the discount might take a

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Speaker 2: bit longer to flow through in regional locations where fuel

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Speaker 2: is sold less frequently and where there may have been

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Speaker 2: fewer competitors in driving distance. But we also spoke to

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Speaker 2: Danielle Wood. She's the head at the Gradden Institute, which

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Speaker 2: is an economic think tank, and she didn't think it

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Speaker 2: would be as simple as saying the A Triple C

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Speaker 2: will just take care of it. She said the A

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Speaker 2: Triple C's monitoring of petrol prices meant it would be

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Speaker 2: well placed to detect if the discount wasn't being passed on,

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Speaker 2: but pointed out that its enforcement powers are limiting to

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Speaker 2: cracking down on false and misleading statements. She said they

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Speaker 2: can also ask for explanations and name and shame, but

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Speaker 2: they haven't really been given any new powers.

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Speaker 1: So it's now been two days since this announcement. In

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Speaker 1: the real world, what have we seen at the petrol pumps.

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Speaker 2: We saw an almost instant announcement from Viva Energy, who

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Speaker 2: run seven hundred calls express sites that they would cut

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Speaker 2: fuel prices by ten cents a leader and would pass

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Speaker 2: on the rest of the savings once it trickled down

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Speaker 2: to the petrol stations themselves. Other fuel giants like BP

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Speaker 2: and Ampole release statements saying that their customers would only

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Speaker 2: see cheaper prices in coming weeks.

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Speaker 1: So the way this budget measure was framed is that

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Speaker 1: it is a six month measure. It expires at the

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Speaker 1: end of September. If the Liberal government win the election

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Speaker 1: and remain in power. What happens after that six month period.

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Speaker 2: The Treasurer was asked about this yesterday he was speaking

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Speaker 2: at the National Press Club and he was really firm

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Speaker 2: that this was a six month program, not a day after.

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Speaker 2: And here's what he had to say.

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Speaker 3: But the reason why we took this step fill was

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Speaker 3: because the cost of living pressures are real. Fuel prices

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Speaker 3: are particularly high and Treasury have forecast that the price

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Speaker 3: of a barrel of oil will come down to one

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Speaker 3: hundred dollars, as you say, by the end of the

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Speaker 3: September period. So the legislation will be very clear. This

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Speaker 3: cut will end on the twenty eighth of September. It

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Speaker 3: will sunset at that time and it won't be extended.

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Speaker 2: I think it's important to note here and it's something

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Speaker 2: that Tom and I chatted about when there were just

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Speaker 2: rumors about the fuel xis being cut. But hiking up

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Speaker 2: taxes is an inherently unpopular thing to do, So it

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Speaker 2: could be that in six months time we have a

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Speaker 2: labor government. So there's been a change of government and

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Speaker 2: they're now responsible for hiking up taxes. So it'll certainly

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Speaker 2: be an interesting thing to watch after the election.

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Speaker 1: I'm interested to hear what critics said about this policy. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: something like cutting petrol prices is pretty popular amongst most Australians.

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Speaker 1: What's been the kickpack.

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Speaker 2: The loudest critics are actually from the electric vehicle space,

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Speaker 2: and they're arguing that the cut in the fuel xcise

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Speaker 2: actually incentivizes Ozzi's to maintain interest in petrol run cars

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Speaker 2: and that there were simultaneously no new measures to support

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Speaker 2: the uptake of electric vehicles. I also saw a number

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Speaker 2: of independent candidates highlighting this after the budget. Advocates in

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Speaker 2: the renewable space were hoping the acceleration of electric vehicle

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Speaker 2: sales in Australia would be propped up as kind of

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Speaker 2: this big answer to a reliance on Russian oil sources.

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Speaker 2: But after seeing what was in the budget, it certainly

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Speaker 2: doesn't seem like that is the case. Here's what Richie Mersey,

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Speaker 2: and he's the Climate and Energy program director at the

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Speaker 2: Australia Institute. He's been on the pod before. Here's what

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Speaker 2: he said about policy.

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Speaker 4: Over the last nine years. The government has got us more,

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Speaker 4: not less addicted to foreign oil. It's done nothing to

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Speaker 4: wean us off it. Nothing on fuel efficiency standards to

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Speaker 4: make our vehicles more efficient so we don't have to

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Speaker 4: use as much oil. Nothing on electrifying our cars so

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Speaker 4: instead of using foreign oil, we can plug it into

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Speaker 4: fuel that we make with the sign, the wind and

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Speaker 4: the water through our renewable power.

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Speaker 1: That is all we've got time for today on the

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Speaker 1: Daily OS It certainly feels like we are steamrolling into

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Speaker 1: an election cycle. To get ahead of all things os POL,

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Speaker 1: we just released another episode of No Silly Questions. You

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Speaker 1: can catch it over on that feed in the same

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Speaker 1: podcast listener app. You're listening to this one right now,

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Speaker 1: let us know what you think about it. We'd love

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Speaker 1: a rating on that podcast if you enjoyed it. Until then,

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Speaker 1: we'll speak to you tomorrow,