Tuesday, 31 March 2026

 Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (18:31): (2459) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Energy and Resources. The action I seek is that she outline precisely what the Victorian government is doing to support regional Victorian families, farmers and businesses through the worst fuel crisis in a generation. Even after tomorrow’s federal excise cut, diesel will remain close to $3 – an unthinkable level two months ago. Service stations across regional Victoria have run dry. Farmers in my electorate are waiting a fortnight for an on-farm diesel delivery at the very time winter crop sowing should be starting. Our economy runs on diesel. It powers every truck, every refrigerated vehicle and all the machinery on building sites and farms across the state. When diesel hits $3 a litre, those costs cascade through the entire supply chain, into freight rates, food prices and the cost of every essential on supermarket shelves. It is an inflationary shock that will continue to hurt Victorian families at the checkout long after prices on the forecourt have dropped back.

Yesterday the Commonwealth put $2.55 billion on the table to halve the fuel excise – a measure the coalition called for and the government was dragged to. We picked up the phone; Jacinta could not. The Premier’s response was free public transport in Melbourne for the month of April. That is of little or no use to regional Victorians, who have no trams and barely a bus or a train to catch. They just pay more and get nothing. What is Victoria’s plan for 1 July, when this temporary excise relief expires and families and businesses face an overnight 26.3 cent increase on top of prices that may still be at record levels?

Meanwhile the Treasurer confirmed this morning that the government is only looking at the GST windfall flowing to Victoria from record fuel prices. Even after the excise cut and business tax credits, Victoria is conservatively receiving an additional $17 million a month in windfall GST revenue from this crisis – money taken directly from the pockets of struggling families. The government is not looking at a windfall; it is banking one. Victoria has real powers under the Fuel Emergency Act 1977. The government should investigate them. It has a windfall; it should return it. It owes regional Victorians more than commentary, apps and free trams they cannot catch.