No and it never was!
Simply put, it is just another one of those regressive measures, that was created to enable the transfer of tax liability, from the tax avoiding wealthy few, to the massively numerical poor/less well off!
Even so, it won't raise much money if we don't bite the bullet and do something besides ringing our hands and saying isn't it awful, about a week's reserve of fuel!
From a personal perspective, this just highlights everything that is wrong in politics and as always, opportunistic politicians, every-ready, it would seem, to serve a narrow sectional interest; and indeed, it would seem, favor them ahead of the national interest!
Which would be served by reinstating the govt oil and gas corporation, which in turn should be tasked with finding and exploiting our own fuel resources, and wherever they lay.
(No more sacred cows please!)
But particularly if they can be shown to produce far less carbon from wellhead to harvester/what-have-you, than that we import!
After that we just need to crack on with real and quite massive tax reform!
In which case we'd never have to confront this issue ever again, just take the blinkers off and get on prospering the nation! Not billionaire oil barons!?
Like, you think multinational oil companies need a further lift in their already price gouged profits!?
Rhrosty.

Come on Rhrosty old mate, time to stop bleating about the poor/underprivileged, every time some cost is mentioned.

We all know that on average those on less than the average wage pay no income tax. They get it all, plus more, back in handouts.

It is to cover those extras that are handed out to the non wealthy that such taxes are necessary.

You can't have free health, free education, & subsidised damn near everything, without charging a bit back to the recipients.

Just because Melbourne is the second biggest Greek city in the world, is no reason to try to emulate their crazy economics.

Too right hasbeen, the under privileged just don't know how lucky they are to be living in a generous nation like we have.

Yes Hasbeen old mate, and this endless money churn costs billions!
Better we just remove all the non means tested benefits, and focus on reducing costs, to where all can afford to live and above the poverty line.
The poor still pay the GST and fuel excise. And the extra this always imposes at the checkout.
Better we reduce all imputations and allow true competition to do what some economists tell us it does.
Namely reduce costs, and not just for the so-called poor, but hard-pressed small business as well!
Imagine, the removal of all the profit demanding parasitic nonproductive middlemen, would not only halve the cost of living, but that of doing business in this country as well!
The poor may cost the taxpayer millions; but the real blood suckers, tax avoiding and parasitic profit demanding middlemen, cost the taxpayer many annual billions!
One would have thought a man able to earn honors in science, would have been a bit brighter and seen that?
Is that why they call you, hasbeen; as in, hasbeen brighter?
Rhrosty.

The current price of petrol in Australia is ridiculously low, and should be nearer to the British/European level of around $2.20 per litre. This would require additional tax of around $1 per litre, with no compensation for anyone. Hockey missed his chance when he said that a petrol price increase wouldn't affect the poor; he should have explained that his statement was correct because when he finishes with them none of the poor will be able to afford to own a car.

The motto for the next decade should be: "Is your journey really necessary"

What seems so hard for many to realise is the the current standard of living is unsustainable, and needs to be LOWERED. Only by doing this can we avoid the fate of Greece, Spain, etc.

What we really need to do is to move to a fuel that contains 85% alcohol, which is produced from local sources. This would mean that 75% of our fuel would be sourced locally, and remove our current over-dependence on foreign oil.

I continue to be amazed at the inability of most posters to appreciate how terrible things in the world will be over the next 20 years. The total failure to reverse the enormous expansion in world population means that we can expect constant attacks from groups like ISIS. What people should be thinking about is what we would do if ISIS got hold of nuclear weapons. This is not idle thinking, as Pakistan has quire a few. The detonation of a terrorist nuclear device on New York of London would result in vengeance which would be terrible, but this is the world we live in.

Rehctub, just who are these underprivileged, & how much do you think they should be paid out of workers earnings? Are you talking about pensioners, dole recipients, or the bloke driving the garbage truck?

Rhrosty, who are all these wealthy rip off middlemen you are on about. I know a lot of smarties made heaps from Ruddies schools spending, subletting contracts that were awarded to excessive prices, but otherwise I have not run into many. Perhaps I just don't mix in your rarified areas.

Are you talking about wholesalers, often called middle men? I knew a few of them, & used to supply them. It doesn't matter who does it, a middle man or the manufacturer, someone has to warehouse & distribute stuff. I always found it cost more to do it yourself as a manufacturer, than have a wholesaler do it. He was better at it usually, but I don't know any who got rich doing it.

We hear about sustainability, but keeping 1.5 million on welfare, plus the pensioners, & dare I say the bureaucrats, is just not sustainable. Every advanced country is going down the tube to bankruptcy. We are going to have to find a way to make most of us, even us old farts, self supporting.

The coming huge cost of public service pensions is going to be that final straw. Add the disability insurance scheme, & the system WILL fail.

We have to find a source of money to pay for it all. Sure the churn is not the answer, but saying we should be more generous is simply head in sand stuff, ignoring the too hard problem, by kicking the can down the road.

As for cutting costs, how the hell can any one do that, when awards are so high. At the same time, most pay packets are not a living wage for a family. Rater than cheap & nasty shots, give me your answer, I'm all ears.