Australia is a big country. Local people and business need affordable fuel. Affordable fuel would reinvigorate local tourism. Australians could afford to travel on holidays in their own country. International tourists would hear of cheap fuel and visit Australia.

Petrol discount coupons once reinvigorated tourism in Italy. But to hell with coupons just for tourists.

Fuel for vehicles in Australia could be made cheaper if Australian gas cost the same at the bowser as the export cost. And add excise reasonable to motorists.

Perhaps cost of gas locally could be brought right down if motorists stood up and demanded a fair go.
A fair go is an Australian value is it not?

If Victoria is going to approve gas exploration then the State of Victoria could stand up and say no more gas exploration and drilling unless gas is made available to Australians at the same price it is exported for.

Government of Australia take notice.
We can all use the roads less or stay at home and holiday overseas if high cost of fuel continues. In fact stay at home is occurring right now for many many people. Many out of town farmers cannot even afford to get to town these days, some are sharing transport.

Surely government can understand tax revenue would increase if lower fuel cost would allow tourism and other business to get back to business and more employment by having affordable fuel.

Why buy costly new imported electric vehicles with batteries that wear out when existing vehicle conversion to affordable clean gas could sustainably drive the nation forward?

Ideology from regressives in Labour/Greens and Liberal will not allow commonsense to prevail. Look at how their idiotic push for renewables has made electricity unaffordable and unreliable.

I agree, Runner
But knowing that surely it is possible to establish a way to step over the top of it.

I can't agree that the cost of fuel is a major deterrent to driving to a local tourism destination for a holiday.

To give an example, let's do some costings:
Last time I filled up, which was last weekend, I paid about $1.25/L and this was in a rural area about 250kms from Brisbane. Most cars do more than 10km/L at highway speeds which means it costs less than $125 per 1000km at the last price I paid for fuel. In a car this efficient, if someone lived in Melbourne (assuming that petrol there is about the same price) they could do a round trip to any town in the state for less than $200. This $200 would even cover a few 100kms of extra mileage for driving around the local area once you've got there.
So for a short break holiday with a bit of luxury, such as a three long day weekend where you stayed in bed and breakfast for 2 nights and ate out your evening meal at restaurants with a few daytime activities such as a wine tours, day-spa/massage etc, your fuel costs would be a minor part of the total spend.

thinkabit,

What would be the cost of petrol from Melbourne to Cairns with the wife and kids for Christmas holidays on the Great Barier Reef?

Or say from Sydney to Ayres Rock via Adelaide with the family?

And then there are people who have to travel 200 k plus a day to go to work and back.

JF Aus: You ask "What would be the cost of petrol from Melbourne to Cairns with the wife and kids for Christmas holidays on the Great Barier Reef?".

Well a quick search on the Internet and a bit of maths gives us the answer:

After typing in "distance Melbourne to Cairns" into Google the 2nd top result tells me that it is 2842km by driving. Doubling this for the round trip gives 5700km (rounding up to closest 100). Multiplying by the $125/1000km = $0.125/km figure I was using in the previous post gives $712.50. (Though admittedly it might be a bit more than this since fuel is more expensive in the regional areas but if this really was a concern of yours you could take some jerry cans filled at cheaper city price).

Now, $712.50 seems like a lot- but here's the rub, to drive with kids from Melbourne to Cairns return it will take at least 8 days to do it safely with some comfort. In other words you will be paying for food and accommodation for the family for seven nights, which will cost you some hundreds of dollars (most likely more than the cost of fuel if you eat-out and stay in building accommodation instead of camping). Then once you get to Cairns you will be spending even more money on accommodation, food and entertainment/activities, probably some thousands of dollars (I'm assuming that you would want to stay for at least a weak- rather than get there and turn back straight back home). All-up the fuel cost will still be a minor component of the total cost.

But besides this: there is something that needs to be asked. Why the hell would you drive when you can fly? You would save the money spent on food/accommodation on the way and more importantly save at least 6 days of your time.

[TBC]