He short-changes motorists by 1.5 cents a litre and runs around saying he hasn't. The pressure shifts to the next automatic indexation of the petrol excise on February 1.
Backbenchers demand a freeze of that one as a one off.
No way, fiscally irresponsible, we'll give you big bucks for roads instead. Labor puts up a private members bill to freeze the February 1 excise hike retrospectively, on the grounds that this will fix Howard's broken GST promise. We're just implementing Labor's legislation providing for automatic indexation, passed in 1983. Then Western Australia and Queensland and next month, the incredibly important byelection for the blue ribbon Liberal seat of Ryan, which if lost will destroy Howard's leadership. He gives back the 1.5 cents a litre he filched last year, which if he hadn't would have killed the issue before it caught fire AND promises immediate legislation to abolish automatic indexation forever.