It’s the most costly anti-climate policy in the Australian government budget, working against efforts to cut emissions. This financial year, taxpayers will hand over nearly $10.8bn to make it cheaper for miners, farmers and some other industries to use diesel and petrol.

How much? Nearly $30m a day, every day of the year. Or $20,500 a minute, around the clock.

It’s more than the government spends on the air force. It’s more than twice as much as it spends on foreign aid. It’s many times over what it spends on First Nations’ health.

The policy is known as the fuel tax credits scheme. It has received occasional attention in the past, notably in an annual report by the progressive Australia Institute. But there is now a growing chorus of people saying it is a clear fossil fuel subsidy, makes little sense and should be wound back, if not outright abolished, in this term of parliament.

The scheme works like this: most Australians pay an indexed excise, currently 51.6 cents, on every litre of petrol or diesel they buy. Some businesses – those that use the fuel to run vehicles on private roads, or that drive heavy vehicles on public roads, or use diesel for machinery – get that tax refunded.

Supporters of the scheme argue fuel excise exists to fund roads, and those who get the credit are mostly burning the petrol and diesel they buy away from public roads. Why, they ask, should they be paying tax for a service they are not using?

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But there are holes in this logic. In reality, fuel excise is mostly........

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