Starting Tuesday, most public transit across the Australian state of Victoria, of which Melbourne is the capital, will be free of charge for a month, in an effort by the local government to insulate residents from the widening oil shock from the Iran war. The island state of Tasmania is making bus and ferry rides free for three months.
Four weeks after the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran, global oil and gas markets remain in turmoil. Many countries, especially in Asia, have been buffeted by higher fuel prices. Retail gasoline prices in Australia, on average, have jumped about 40 percent since the war started, according to the Australian Institute of Petroleum. That has been another blow for many Australians already struggling with high prices, prompting some to cancel Easter vacation plans.
“We might not be able to control those global oil prices. What we can control and support is cost-of-living measures right now,” Jacinta Allan, the premier of Victoria, told the Channel Seven network on Monday.
Ms. Allan said the measure could save the typical train, bus or ferry commuter up to 220 Australian dollars, or $151, over the month of April. “That’s money that can go back into the household budget to pay for groceries, maybe the mortgage or the rent.”
The monthlong measure will cost about 71 million Australian dollars in lost revenue, according to her office.
“We know the rising cost of fuel is impacting the family budget,” Tasmania’s premier, Jeremy Rockliff, said in a statement on Sunday. “Tasmanians are increasingly choosing to use public transport, with a 20 percent increase across the state in the last week.”
Officials in other parts of Australia — including New South Wales, which is home to Sydney, the country’s largest city — have so far rejected pleas for similar measures.
But starting on Wednesday, the federal government will halve the excise on gasoline and diesel for three months — allowing drivers to save about 19 Australian dollars when filling a 17-gallon tank, according to the authorities.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the country’s fuel supply outlook remained secure in the near term, but warned that a prolonged war in Iran could make things more difficult.
“We’re acting now to be over-prepared, to prepare and to shield Australians from the worst of the impacts,” he told reporters in Canberra.
Australia, a major exporter of coal and liquefied natural gas, is increasingly exposed to global fuel market disruption after it wound down its domestic oil refining capacity in recent decades. Today it imports 90 percent of its fuel supply, much of which comes from Asian refineries. They in turn receive most of their crude oil from the Middle East.
Laura Chung is a Sydney-based reporter and researcher for The Times, covering Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific.
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