Aussie families say they'll suffer from incoming fuel price increase

It's time to fill up the family car, because petrol prices across Australia are about to rise.

On Wednesday night the federal government is hiking up its fuel excise tax.

Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison halved the tax to 22 cents per litre in March to save households money.

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It was a cost of around three billion dollars to government coffers that saved around $10 to $20 per tank.

But the tax holiday is ending and at midnight on Wednesday, the new Labor treasurer will bring the full tax back, which will force petrol prices up by around 23 cents per litre.

Lisa Henry is a busy Brisbane mum whose family relies on their car every day, spending hours on the road.

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"I think a lot of families are going to really suffer from the increase in the fuel prices," Henry said.

They're filling up every fortnight, conscious of keeping their household budget in check and with the cost of everything going up, they're keeping watch.

"Our children go to swimming lessons, so things like that, we might have to limit if we can't afford to pull money from other parts of the budget and I don't really want to do that," she said.

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For people like Wendy Winton, the rising costs are crippling their businesses and the increase in government tax will take more from their bottom line.

Winton is a driver catering to families.

"We quote somebody a job and they say, 'yes', we accept the job, which we have to do. (If) we get to the job and petrol has gone up our bottom line ... (is) way less and we have to carry on and do it," Winton said.

"We can't put our prices up because they're putting their petrol up every five minutes."

Right now there are still millions of litres of petrol at service stations that were purchased at cheaper prices, meaning the price hike shouldn't hit overnight.

"We don't want suppliers and servos to treat Australian motorists like mugs," Treasurer Jim Chalmers said.

But there can be ways to ease the hip pocket pain.

Lisa is a Costco member, who uses her discount to save.

"The fuel there is generally around 20 cents cheaper than any other fuel station in the area," Lisa said.