For the past five months, high fuel prices in Australia eased a little because of a cut in the fuel excise tax.
Implemented by the previous government, it cut the usual rate of excise of 44.2 cents per litre to 22.1 cents.
But the cut was only scheduled to last until the 28th of September, and the new Federal Government says it's not going to change that.
The Federal Government says halving the tax has cost three billion dollars so far, and it's a burden the budget can no longer sustain.
As far as taxes go, Ms Terrill says the fuel excise makes sense.
"Because we don't have an economy-wide carbon tax, making it a little more expensive to burn fossil fuels operates a bit like as if it was a carbon tax, in that it does discourage driving a little bit. So, that is one reason why fuel excise is probably quite a good tax to have. And the other is, even though we may grumble and complain about it, people are not actually that responsive to the change in price. They don't change how much fuel they use all that much- certainly in the near term. So, economists would tend to think that's quite an efficient tax."
The question on most people's minds now is what will happen to fuel prices once the excise cut expires.
Dr Lurian De Mello is a Senior Lecturer at Macquarie University's Business School.
"If crude oil remains under $100 dollars a barrel, I think petrol prices are going to remain low. But the biggest worry is diesel. The price of diesel is around $2.20, $2.19, around $2.30 as well at some fuel stations. So, to have a benefit at the end of September, if oil prices come down, but we also want the diesel price to come down as well. Because we might pay less at the bowser to fill up our cars, but a high diesel price is going to have far more damaging impacts of the economy."
