Calls for action as hundreds of service stations in NSW, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia run out of fuel

The government temporarily lowered fuel standards for both petrol and diesel and announced the release of hundreds of millions of litres from the national stockpile but Treasurer Jim Chalmers today said he wasn’t considering suspending the fuel excise to help bring prices down.

“We have been working very hard to provide cost-of-living relief in the most responsible way that we can,” he said.

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen today revealed the number of petrol stations without at least one type of fuel had topped 550 nationwide.

That figure was 289 in NSW alone, with 162 in Victoria, at least 55 but as many as 100 in Queensland, 46 in South Australia and a handful in Western Australia and Tasmania. 

Only yesterday, NSW Premier Chris Minns said fuel rationing was not likely.

Today he said if it was introduced there needed to be a co-ordinated approach by all states.

“If demand management procedures are required—that might be rationing, working from home, or other programs or remedies that we can introduce into the marketplace—we firmly believe that it should be a nationally consistent approach,” he told state parliament today.

“Whether or not that is organised by the States but the same across jurisdictions, it is hugely important. 

“We share borders with the Australian Capital Territory, Queensland and Victoria. Many of our residents and their residents can cross borders to purchase fuel.”

Push for free public transport

In the meantime, Australians have been urged to save fuel in other ways, such as driving more conservatively and taking public transport.

There are growing calls across multiple states to make public transport services cheaper or even free to attract more commuters.

In NSW, Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane today added her voice to the transport union’s earlier demands for free travel.

“This will help families, it’ll help small businesses, and it will ease pressure at the pump,” she said. 

“We think it’s a no-brainer.”

State Transport Minister John Graham knocked the plan on the head, saying the government was instead looking for “long-term solutions”.

The Greens had already made similar calls for discounts nationally and in Victoria.

Warning about fuel supply from Asia

Bowen sought to quell fears about fuel shipments not being able to make it to Australia thanks to Iran’s effective closure to most shipping of the Strait of Hormuz, triggered by the US and Israel’s attacks.

“As the government has made clear on multiple occasions, every ship that has been expected has arrived,” Bowen said.

“We have very transparently said that there have been cancellations in April.”

But Australian Institute of Petroleum chief executive Malcolm Roberts warned if the strait stayed shut for a few weeks Asian refineries would struggle to refill their inventories.

“If this continues, eventually there’ll be a point where those refineries are well and truly short of the crude oil they need,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald, noting those refineries supply about 80 per cent of Australia’s refined fuel.

“If refineries haven’t been able to find some replacement supply, they’re going to start cutting back production, which some refineries apparently are already doing, and they’ll also come under pressure to prioritise their domestic market … we all know it’s exceptional circumstances, so we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Macquarie University senior lecturer Lurion De Mello told the newspaper there were no shipments heading to Australia due for arrival after mid-April, describing it as “concerning” but not cause for “extreme alarm”.

But if they remain lower those prices will still take time to flow through to consumers and there is still no permanent solution to allow free access to the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 per cent of the world’s oil travels.

Truck drivers on the brink

The nation’s truck drivers are warning that unless they pass on the cost of Trump’s war on Iran, their businesses will collapse.

Some transport companies are reporting fuel costs surging more than 80 per cent since last month.

Ray Carlson, who’s driven more than 10 million kilometres in his more than five decades behind the wheel, said the cost to fill his B-double had jumped from $2800 to $5000.

The 2000-kilometre round trip from Brisbane to Mackay, in North Queensland, uses about 1000 litres of diesel. 

It cost $1629 in February and $2950 today but many truckies are on the hook for their fuel bill under contracts that pre-date the war in the Middle East.

“Right now it is absolute chaos on the ground and I’m hearing from small to medium-sized companies that they are at absolute breaking point,” Leonnie Carter from Carter Heavy Haulage said.

National Road Freighters Association president Glyn Castanelli said it was a “national emergency” and called for quick action.

Farmers warned their rising costs plus transport was a double whammy for shoppers.

“It’s a snowballing effect because it’s costing us more to freight our commodities, but also produce them,” National Farmers’ Federation director Hamish McIntyre said.

The Fair Work Commission will tomorrow mediate talks between transport companies and industry to work out how best to handle rising fuel costs. 

But in the end it will be consumers who will be paying for at least as long the war continues.

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