Survey finds most Australians support fuel tax credit cap, and didn’t know miners pocketed so many billions

A new comprehensive survey of over 5,000 respondents from across the country has shown that Australians overwhelmingly support capping diesel fuel tax credits at $50 million per company.

Australia’s Fuel Tax Credit scheme currently allows businesses and individuals to claim back the fuel tax they pay on diesel under certain circumstances.

But it is being argued by the likes of Andrew Forrest and his mining giant Fortescue that it is amounting to a giant subsidy for international miners, and is hindering the transition to green energy and electric transport.

“Fuel tax credits started out helping farmers,” said Bruce Hardy, executive director at the Energy Futures Foundation. “Today they’re a $5 billion-a-year subsidy for multinational miners.”

Fortescue is advocating for a $50 million cap on the diesel tax refund per company per year, but only for the top 18 mining companies – not farmers, fishers, small miners, or truckies.

As part of the company’s efforts to advocate for this change to the Fuel Tax Credit scheme, Fortescue and the Energy Futures Foundation commissioned political and data scientist Professor Simon Jackman to conduct a nationwide online survey to assess public attitudes towards reforming the scheme.

The poll of 5,238 Australians online found that approval for fuel rebates for the mining sector received 51-49 per cent approval. But when respondents were made aware of the $4.5 billion the mining sector receives in refunds, the net 2 per cent approval fell to -16 per cent disapproval.

Fuel tax credits for other industries including transport and freight; agriculture, forestry, and fishing; and construction, maintained net approval, but in each case net approval fell varying degrees when the value of FTCs to each sector was revealed.

Interestingly, when presented with the argument for reforming the Fuel Tax Credit scheme and the case against, based on the Minerals Council’s ‘Road Taxes are for Road Users’ campaign, respondents were unpersuaded by the ‘against’ argument.

Some 77 per cent agreed with the proposal that rebates should be capped for the top 20 companies and only 23 per cent believed that the refunds should not be capped. Approval for reform climbed slightly when respondents were presented with a proposed higher cap if companies used additional refunds for clean energy initiatives.

“This is what happens when Australians are given the facts — they see straight through it,” said Dino Otranto, CEO of metals and operations at Fortescue. “This isn’t fringe, it’s overwhelming – Australians want this fixed.

“We’re one of the biggest recipients, and we’re saying cap it. This is the easiest economic reform on the table. At a time when families are under pressure, why are we still subsidising diesel?

“The message is clear — Australians are ready. Government should act.”

“Cap the top end, send the money to the families and farmers paying for this fuel crisis, and start building our way out of our dependency on foreign oil,” added Hardy. “We can’t wait for the next Hormuz.

 “If we’re serious about energy security, half the savings should go straight to electrifying freight. That’s a billion litres of imported diesel out of the system within five years — a quarter of what heavy trucks burn today.”