Petrol and diesel prices fall across Australia as Labor’s fuel excise cut takes effect | Petrol prices

Fuel prices began to fall across Australia following the government’s fuel excise tax cut, unexpectedly accelerating the provision of living costs assistance.

Prices in capital cities paused on Wednesday, then fell sharply, after the Prime Minister announced that taxes on petrol and diesel would be halved to 26.3 cents per liter.

Unleaded prices fell by an average of 16 cents per liter on Wednesday, according to NRMA data, while prices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth averaged between 243 and 245 cents per litre. Diesel fell from 323.5 cents to 311.1 cents on average across Australia.

The biggest declines were in Adelaide; There was a decrease of 21.3 cents in diesel and 24.9 cents in unleaded fuel; this rate was almost equal to the entire fuel excise tax deduction.

The excise duty was cut on Wednesday and was expected to take days or weeks to be reflected in retail prices, as gas stations were forced to first sell stocks of more expensive fuel purchased before the cut. But service stations immediately reduced prices, on average, even for stocks purchased at exactly 52.6 cents per liter.

Ampol confirmed that it has decided to transfer the entire 26.3 cent discount to some of its stations as of Wednesday morning, while the remaining stations will apply the cut during the day.

Oil prices in Australia’s capital cities have been rising almost daily since the beginning of March, according to data from Informed Sources.

But even before the excise announcement, the market had been trending sideways, with prices in Sydney and Brisbane remaining stable since the weekend.

From Friday to Tuesday, unleaded fuel remained stable at around 259 cents per liter in Adelaide, 264 cents in Darwin, and fell from 260 cents to 257.5 in Hobart. In Perth, it fell from 258.3 cents to 251.7 cents from Thursday to Tuesday.

Fuel shortages also eased as the number of service stations for at least one type of fuel fell on Wednesday, reversing a persistent rise, according to Guardian Australia’s analysis of state government data.

State Premier Chris Minns said that in New South Wales, 30 stations ran out of all types of fuel on Wednesday and 207 stations did not have diesel. While 75 stations ran out of fuel on Monday, this number increased to 61 on Tuesday, and 247 stations did not have diesel on Tuesday.

Minns told reporters: “My strong suspicion is that this is a result of consumers waiting for excise duty to be cut before filling up their tanks.

“It comes at a good time as we approach the Easter long weekend. It tells me the fuel will be available and you shouldn’t cancel your plans.”

Thousands of vehicles disappeared from Sydney’s roads throughout March, suggesting drivers are starting to cut back on fuel consumption.

NSW government data shows traffic on Pennant Hills Road in the last week of March was down 2.6% from the end of February, before the war in Iran boosted oil prices, or 5% from the same week the previous year.

Compared to the previous year, traffic fell 4.4% on Victoria Road, 2.3% on Parramatta Road and 1.8% on Military Road. Traffic at Anzac Parade in Sydney’s east was up 5% on the previous year in late February, but was running 1% lower by the end of March.

The streets around Sydney airport were also emptied. Traffic numbers fell 9% on Airport Drive and 5% on Qantas Drive from the last week of February to the last week of March.

Public transport use in NSW remains virtually unchanged; There were an average of 2.38 million Opal network trips on weekdays in the last week of March; Same as in 2025.

Additional reporting by Penry Buckley and Josh Nicholas