DPA

Sydney

Australia’s Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey has apologised over remarks about the effect of changes to the fuel tax that were perceived as insulting to the poor.

“I am really genuinely sorry that there is any suggestion at all that I or the government doesn’t care for the most disadvantaged in the community,” Hockey said on Mcquarie Radio. “I am sorry about the interpretation. I am sorry about the words.”

In a debate on the new national budget on Wednesday, opposition parties opposed the proposed indexation of the fuel tax to inflation, saying that any price increases would hit lower-income households hardest.

But Hockey on Wednesday argued the reverse was true.

“The people that actually pay the most are higher income people, yet the Labor Party and the Greens are opposing it,” he told broadcaster ABC. “They say you’ve got to have wealthier people or middle-income people pay more. Well, change to the fuel excise does exactly that – the poorest people either don’t have cars or actually don’t drive very far in many cases.”

Despite a flurry of criticism and ridicule, Hockey initially stood by his remarks.

Australians on social media accused the treasurer of being out of touch with working-class Australia.

A lawmaker from the state of Victoria noted that residents of rural Australia generally earn less, have further distances to travel and public transport was limited.

“We can’t all hop on cows and ride into town,” Ricky Muir was quoted as saying in an ABC report.

Reporters asked Prime Minister Tony Abbott what he thought of Hockey’s comments when he returned from a trip abroad.

“Plainly I wouldn’t say that,” Abbott told a press conference in New South Wales.

Hockey went on Macquarie Radio shortly afterwards.