Motorists were urged to fuel up their vehicle on Tuesday’s ‘cheap day,’ as by Thursday the 6 month halving of the fuel excise cut will come to an end.

Marion Terrill, Transport and Cities Program Director at the Grattan Institute, argues that the tax cut was not a good idea in the first place as it was never going to be the solution to WA’s cost-of-living crisis.

“It was designed to alleviate cost of living pressure but really what this cut has done is help people who are on higher incomes a lot more than those on lower incomes. The highest earning 20% of households spend almost three times as much on petrol and diesel as the lowest 20%,” she told Mark Gibson on Perth Live.

“Certainly people are feeling the squeeze but the thing is some people who are feeling the squeeze don’t drive at all and some people who are not feeling the squeeze drive a lot.

“So it’s just not a well targeted measure to help people who are facing cost of living pressures. It’s much better to give people a tax break or an increase to their welfare payment and then they can decide how to spend it on what matters most to them,” Ms Terrill said.

Press PLAY to hear her full argument