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Motorists should not see an immediate uptick in petrol prices with the fuel excise cut ending, Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones says.

Drivers already face soaring prices at the bowser but there are fears they could spike more than 20 cents a litre as the cut concludes on Wednesday night.

The federal government says the hike shouldn't happen straight away, with about 700 million litres of petrol having been purchased by retailers beforehand.

"We would look very firmly down on any petrol station that has supplies purchased under the previous arrangement that sees the need overnight to jack the price up 23 cents a litre," Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said.

Mr Jones warned companies against upping prices immediately, saying the consumer watchdog, the ACCC, would be closely monitoring the situation.

He said the government couldn't continue to afford the tax cut as it balanced rising interest rates.

"We feel the pain, we know that it is going to hurt households, which is why we haven't taken this decision lightly," he told Sky News.

The NRMA's Peter Khoury is urging oil companies to cut fuel prices, saying oil has plummeted below $US100 a barrel, almost on par with pre-pandemic pricing and wholesale prices have also dropped more than 50c per litre since June.

"Despite falling global prices and the full fuel excise tax not yet reinstated, prices in Sydney are approaching $2 per litre, meaning motorists are paying much more for fuel than they should be in the lead up to the October long weekend, he said on Wednesday.

"We need to see a correction immediately."

The cut to the fuel excise was put in place by the former coalition government for six months to help Australians struggling with the cost of living and soaring prices at the bowser due to the war in Ukraine.

Labor said it would continue with the six-month time frame without extension due to pressures on the budget.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers said it would cost the government $6 billion a year to keep the excise cut.

The head of the Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association said the situation had changed from when prices spiked after Russia invaded Ukraine.

"If ever there was a time where you'd be talking about reinstalling the excise, it's probably about now," Mark McKenzie told the ABC.

"Recessionary pressures are actually pushing the global price down.

"We're likely to see prices after the excise on an average basis ... lower than they were before the excise was cut in March."

© AAP 2022

No effort is being spared in looking into the Optus customer record breach, with the FBI joining the Australian Federal Police in probing the alarming incident.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus revealed the international cooperation as the group behind the breach scrapped its ransom demand and claimed to have deleted the 11 million customers' records it scraped from the telco's website.

The attempt to force Optus to pay $US1 million ($A1.54 million) by Friday was dropped hours after the group released a batch of 10,000 Australian customers' sensitive details on a data breach forum on the clear web.

The illegally obtained information includes passport, Medicare and driver's licence numbers, dates of birth, home addresses and information about whether a person is renting or living with parents.

Several state governments have struck agreements with Optus to protect customers whose driver's licences were compromised.

In Victoria and NSW, people can get replacement cards and Optus will cover the costs.

Affected customers in Queensland and South Australia can organise replacement licenses free of charge, while the ACT and other jurisdictions are still working through the issue.

The hackers said they would have alerted Optus to its vulnerability if the telco had a secure method to contact or a bug bounty.

Mr Dreyfus told parliament a whole-of-government response had been launched, with the AFP not only working with government and industry but also the FBI.

The attorney-general also expressed concern Optus did not report the exposure of Medicare numbers in the breach.

Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie described the government's response to the hack as "lacklustre and slow".

The opposition is calling for the government to waive fees and expedite the processing of new passports for Optus customers whose passport numbers had been compromised.

"Victims of the Optus cyber hack should not have to wait or pay significant amounts of fees to secure their personal information, and obtain a new passport," shadow foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham and shadow cyber security spokesman James Patterson said in a statement..

They said the Department of Foreign Affairs was advising on its website that "if you choose to replace your passport you'll have to pay" as the department was not responsible for the data breach.

Optus says it has sent email or SMS messages to customers whose details were compromised and apologised for the concern it has caused.

But it insists payment details and account passwords were not compromised as a result of the attack.

The privacy commissioner has urged Optus customers to be vigilant and not click on any links in text messages.

© AAP 2022

Queensland's energy policy will take centre stage during "one of the most important" addresses Annastacia Palaszczuk will deliver as premier.

The state government has being laying the groundwork for a major policy announcement as ministers seek to focus attention on work in the renewable space.

Announcing plans for the largest publicly-owned wind farm in Australia on Monday, the Queensland premier said Wednesday's speech will outline the state's energy plan.

"It's probably one of the most important State of the State address that I will ever give as premier," Ms Palaszczuk said.

While highlighting residential solar uptake in the state on Tuesday, Deputy Premier Steven Miles hinted on what to expect.

"Tomorrow you will hear much more about our plans for meeting our renewable energy targets and ensuring reliable, cheap, secure energy going forward," he said.

"Queensland is home to many high-energy intensive industries, so we want to provide them with a pathway to clean, green, cheap, secure energy."

The government is remaining tight lipped on whether or not the plan will include a more ambitious renewable energy target, or an early closure of coal-fired power stations.

"When we came to office in 2015, people said we were mad for setting that 50 per cent renewable energy target (by 2030)," Mr Miles said.

"You will see a clear plan for us to meet our targets tomorrow and you'll expect that I'm not going to ruin any of the surprises".

© AAP 2022