Elsie Lange
Petrol prices across the country are soaring above $2 per litre again and for support workers travelling long distances from Sunbury, it’s taking a toll.
Sunbury aged care worker Holly Chapman is one of many people making the trek for her job, having to fork out the cost to provide support to others.
“Since moving to Sunbury, it’s about 50km each way. I usually work five or six days a week, which adds up very quickly, when you think about petrol,” Ms Chapman said.
“We don’t get reimbursed for that at all.”
The aged care worker said she is usually good at budgeting, but since petrol became so costly, “That’s gone out the window”.
Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association chief executive Mark McKenzie put the fuel price volatility down to two things: “Increases in global oil prices plus a fall in the value of the Australian dollar”.
The Morrison government’s cut the fuel excise by 22 cents per litre took place from March 30 and will continue until September 28.
Mr McKenzie said without the cut, people in regional Victoria would be paying close to $2.26.
“The key thing here is you can’t stop global price rises with an Australian tax cut, but it is helping in that it means that total prices are lower than they would otherwise have been,” he said.
Nathan, who did not want to publish his surname, is a disability support worker and music teacher from Sunbury who drives across the city to his participants.He said paying for petrol has become a nightmare.
“It is the cost of fuel, tolls and amount of time spent [in] my day stuck in roadworks. It seems as though every main road system is closed down daily, adding up to an extra hour of idling in the car,” Nathan said.
Mr McKenzie said it was “impossible to tell” whether fuel costs will continue to rise or fall.
“It’s changing so quickly that we’re getting whiplash just watching what’s actually happening with prices at the moment.”
