‘I’ve got two thirsty cars’: How disunity over GST has cost NSW drivers 10¢ at the bowser

NSW is scrambling to decide how to spend millions in extra GST revenue from record bowser prices after a plan to save motorists up to 10¢ per litre on fuel crumbled in the face of disunity among states and territories.

As the premier declared energy independence essential to guard against further oil shocks, there are warnings that any savings from the federal government’s 26¢-a-litre cut to fuel excise tax, introduced from Wednesday, could be wiped out within weeks.

The cost of petrol is at record highs, reaching an average $2.58 a litre on Tuesday, and data shows more Sydneysiders are turning to alternatives such as cycling and walking.

Premiers and chief ministers all agreed not to bank the GST windfall, but they would not commit to the plan preferred by NSW that would have cut 7¢ to 10¢ a litre on top of the fuel excise cut.

Before the meeting of premiers and chief ministers, NSW Premier Chris Minns said reducing the price at the bowser was the quickest way of getting savings into people’s pockets.

“There’s some complexity around GST arrangements that, if we had the time, would be easy to sort out, but given the tightness at the time, the need to return this to NSW commuters, in fact, commuters and motorists right across the country, we want to look at a commonsense and practical way of returning that,” he said.

The NSW government is yet to indicate how it might return the extra millions raised in GST revenue to taxpayers since the talks collapsed on Tuesday.

A Victorian government spokesperson said the state proposed using the windfall to support agriculture, but that NSW had rejected the idea.

The spokesperson denied that Victoria needed the GST revenue to meet the estimated $70 million cost of providing free public transport for a month. “Nothing has been decided,” they said.

The Queensland government has committed to returning the excess GST to households through cost-of-living relief, but it was yet to announce what those measures would be.

At 7am on Tuesday, 61 petrol stations in NSW were out of all fuel, and 247 were out of diesel, taking out 10 per cent of petrol stations statewide.

Minns declared NSW needed more electric vehicles, more charging stations and more renewable energy to protect against economic shocks from war in the Middle East.

Energy independence will be a feature of the upcoming state budget and a focus of the next election campaign, but Minns did not have any further details on what measures that might include.

“I think you’d be a mug to believe this is the only conflict we’re going to see in the Middle East, and [that] we have to take long-term measures to electrify our economy says that we’re not as dependent on Middle Eastern oil,” he said.

Minns said EVs should be available for everyone – not just “for snobs that live in the eastern suburbs”.

“It’s got to be available to regular mums and dads, and that means, particularly if they’re travelling and driving for work, they don’t have range anxiety, they can get access to a recharger.”

Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen earlier in March said solar and EV uptake had been higher in Sydney’s west – where people have longer commutes and more space for solar panels and EV charging – than in the city’s east.

“There are more solar panels in Blacktown than Bondi. There are more EVs in Penrith than Paddington,” he said.

According to Australian Industry Group analysis, cars and utes account for 39 per cent of oil used in Australia, the largest single sector, followed by trucks, which use 13 per cent.

More Sydneysiders are opting to ride bikes or walk rather than paying soaring fuel costs,. New data shows record or near-record numbers of daily bike trips, despite poor weather across the city.

Bike paths in Redfern, Ultimo, Zetland and Waterloo all recorded triple-digit increases in activity this month, compared to the past three-month and annual average trip numbers, Transport for NSW automatic bike path counter data shows.

The Oxford Street cycleway, which opened in July, is the city’s busiest bike route. More than 3200 trips were made per day in March – more than double the Harbour Bridge cycleway, which was Sydney’s most-frequently ridden route.

A $39 million cycle ramp at the northern end of the Harbour Bridge opened on January 6, boosting daily trips by 42 per cent compared to December.

Pyrmont Bridge Road was the second-busiest bike path, followed by Bourke Street, south of Taylor Square, both of which had more than 2300 cyclist trips per day this month.

Bicycle NSW chief executive Peter McLean said time would tell whether the uptick in cycling would become a habit for Sydneysiders.

Ballooning petrol prices kept retired mechanic Ty Christo from getting behind the wheel of his vehicles, one of which runs on diesel: “I’ve got two thirsty cars, and they’re not the best to drive around town all the time,” he said.

“If you’re close to work anyway, and you don’t have to drive, [why not] ride to work every day?”

The Cronulla local frequently cycled about 15 minutes to and from work, and would drive only in bad weather.

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