One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce is calling for the Australian government to bring in fuel rationing to deal with shortages across the country.
Joyce made the call ahead of a National Cabinet meeting set to take place between state premiers and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on March 30.
“If all these premiers that are going to come down here on Monday and have their ‘pow wow,’ I am telling you, you better get out and start rationing,” Joyce told Parliament on March 26.
“Because if you don’t ration, it’s going to start rationing you.”
Joyce shared correspondence from a major funeral home in his regional electorate of New England in northern New South Wales that covers Armidale and Tamworth.
“The funeral industry is running short,” Joyce said. “They can’t handle people who are deceased, [or] move the body from where it is out in the country back to where it can be—the soul is gone, it’s just the body.”
He also raised concerns about farming operations and the country’s food supply being impacted.
Australia’s fuel supply is largely sourced from refineries in Asia, which depend heavily on crude oil imports from the Middle East.
That supply chain is now under pressure due to a major bottleneck, as tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz stalls amid the Iran War.
Domestically, Australia only has two large-scale crude oil refineries left, after several others closed over the past decade, unable to compete with cheaper refining operations in Asia.
In Parliament, Energy Minister Chris Bowen revealed over 500 petrol stations had run dry across the country out of the 6,646 service stations, maintaining many were being replenished on time.
He also added that Viva Energy and Ampol were operating at full pelt and distributing higher volumes of fuel to the region.
“If you take Ampol and Viva together, they are supplying a lot more petrol and diesel to regional Australia now than they were a year ago,” Bowen said during Question Time.
“That is catching up with that massive increase in demand that we saw in the days following the 28th of February [start of the Iran war].”
NSW Premier Calls for Energy Independence
Meanwhile, New South Wales (NSW) Premier Chris Minns highlighted the need for better energy independence.
“This crisis is evidence that economies need to have their own access to energy, I wouldn’t put it only in relation to oil, diesel or petrol, it has to be across the board,” Minns said in a press conference.
In New South Wales as of March 25, out of 2,400 stations, 32 have run out of all fuel types in regional areas.
A further 313 outlets are missing at least one type of fuel with disruptions split between regional and metropolitan locations.
Diesel supplies are under particular strain—prices are near or over $3.00 per litre—with 187 stations out of diesel, including 78 in regional areas and 109 in metropolitan centres.
NSW Energy Minister Penny Sharpe also pledged to make companies outline how they will continue supply to the regions.
“That’s why we’re requiring fuel companies to provide transparent data on supply, stock levels and distribution, particularly to regional communities,” she said in a statement.
Meanwhile, NSW Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane said a temporary fuel excise cut would provide immediate relief, echoing a proposal from her Victorian counterpart Jess Wilson.
“The fuel excise currently sits at 52.6 cents per litre. A reduction like this at the bowser would significantly reduce current pressures people are facing,” Sloane said.
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