Prior to the GST introduction in 2000, the Federal Government promised the Australian electorate that ALL INDIRECT TAXES would be abolished. However, this was a massive and very deliberate lie.
In fact, although most indirect taxes were indeed abolished, the government very sneakily introduced a number of taxes to make up the shortfall in revenue that the GST would have created. For instance, the Wine Equalisation Tax was applied to wine, because the previous indirect wholesale tax reaped more revenue than the GST, so the government conned us all by imposing this tax when it promised to remove all indirect taxes.
The biggest con-job came with the imposition of the Fuel Excise. Call it a different name and it's not a tax, the government said. So as well as paying an indirect wholesale tax on fuel, the hapless motorist found himself paying another tax that was not supposed to be applied. The problem with the fuel excise is that it is is applied to the price of gasoline plus GST, so it compounds the amount by taxing a tax.
It is interesting to note that some of these indirect taxes are actually illegal. Under current legislation, applying a tax on a product or service that is already taxed is against the law, so levying an excise on fuel that is already taxed by GST is blatant double-dipping and illegal, but the Federal Government has been getting away with this scam since 2000.
There are a number of other taxes that are obviously illegal, such as the Luxury Car Tax. Under the Australian Constitution that supersedes any other law, a tax on a tax is illegal, therefore a High Court action by all concerned parties should be launched to force the Federal Government to not only immediately stop applying the Fuel Excise, but to compensate all motorists for the years that they have paid this illegal tax.