Sydney, Australia is in the midst of a fuel crisis, but the government's response signals a firm commitment to fossil fuels. The temporary halving of the fuel excise is costing about $2.55 billion over three months to blunt the pain of oil prices without changing Australia's dependence on oil.
The crisis package keeps the existing, oil-hungry system running, with relief for heavy vehicles and loans to fuel-intensive businesses. However, there is no permanent increase in public transport services or enduring fare reform, and no new support for electric vehicles.
Outside of Victoria and Tasmania, public transport riders got nothing, and people walking or cycling remain invisible in the oil crisis response. In Western Australia, the proposed policy intervention is to spend millions creating WA's own storage of petrol and diesel.
But it doesn't have to be this way. Consider if we spent just one-third of the excise relief – roughly $850 million over the same three-month window – and imagine what could be achieved if we made ending fuel use the goal.
Here's what could be done: make all public transport free nationwide for three months, boost peak-hour frequencies, target the heaviest fuel users with rapid electrification support, fast-track infrastructure for EV uptake, begin the hard transition to electric trucks and tractors, and fund options for public transport, active transport, and EVs.
The point is not to pretend we can fully transform the transport system in three months, but we can make a start. With the same fiscal firepower that Canberra found to support the oil industry, we could start to end our oil dependence.
