Anthony Albanese, Energy Minister Chris Bowen and state premiers will war game worst-case scenarios to the ongoing fuel crisis, and measures to avoid strict Covid-like rules such as fuel rationing.
Future measures include calls for people to cut back on unnecessary travel, ways government can facilitate businesses to adopt working-from-home measures, and other demand-reducing initiatives to prevent the need for fuel rationing, which Labor has gone to lengths to discount.
It comes as gas giant Santos has fast-tracked a shipment of crude oil to Viva Energy’s Geelong refinery to help ease Australia’s fuel crisis.
Santos brought forward part of a 575,000-barrel Cooper Basin crude parcel by about a month for delivery to the Victorian refinery.
This means the facility can now produce the maximum possible amount of petrol and diesel after Viva deferred planned maintenance, although it is unclear exactly how many litres of petrol will flow to bowsers as a result of the move.
There are fears fuel pain will last “more than a month”, as state and federal leaders look to discuss further cost-of-living relief at Monday’s national cabinet meeting.
Victoria and Tasmania have announced a one- and three-month pause of public transport fees, something privately welcomed by federal Labor and seen as states doing their bit.
Victoria’s fare freeze on metropolitan and V/Line services will cost about $70m, while Queensland’s 50c fares only dent revenue by $300m a year.
Veteran economist Chris Richardson said government needed to not “make the same mistakes” of Covid and Russia’s Ukraine invasion, with relief like JobKeeper sparking years of heavy inflation.
Support should also be “inflation neutral”, and not just budget neutral, meaning relief such as a fuel excise cut needed to tackle programs that direct consumer spending, such as the fringe benefit tax on EVs.
Looking at calls by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry to cut the 32.4 cents per litre on diesel for buses, coaches and trucks, known as the heavy vehicle road user charge, Mr Richardson said support should focus on ensuring fuel supply over cuts in diesel costs.
“Everybody is talking about giving money to the punters and that’d be great if it worked, but it will do what it did last time, which is keep inflation going, keep the Reserve Bank on edge and ultimately not solve problems,” he told the Herald Sun.
“Anybody can hand money away, but if they’re just handing money away, they’re giving us a bigger problem with inflation.”
Mr Richardson argued the “incentive” was already there for households to leave the car at home for a bus or train.
He said the current fuel crisis facing Australia showed a triple failure on the “insurance front”.
“One is around the strategic fuel reserve, another is around our sovereign capability to be ready for a crisis and (thirdly) was our economy ready for a crisis.”
Australia currently has 39 days of petrol, 30 days of diesel and jet fuel, however, costs have blown out to a national average of $2.52 per litre of petrol and $3.03 a litre for diesel.
Premier Jacinta Allan said “a national approach’’ needed to be taken at the national cabinet meeting.
“There’s been a huge amount of work go on between federal and state officials through those co-ordination mechanisms that have been set up,’’ she said on Sunday.
“And then the announcements that the federal government made just yesterday around providing greater certainty and security and supply.’’
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli will push for a “long-term plan”, so Australia’s fuel supply would never be made vulnerable by foreign conflicts.
“I want to see a return to a time when this nation was prepared to drill and refine and store fuel,” he said.
States and territories will also demand a national dashboard to detail fuel shortages across the country, which Mr Albanese told the Herald Sun would be delivered within weeks.
Coalition energy spokesman Dan Tehan said a dashboard needed to be “the first priority”, among agreement on a fuel excise cut and a plan to identify and fix the shortages.
“My strong view is that the first priority has to be proper transparency. Until we know exactly what the circumstances are, it’s impossible to know what else should be done,” he said. “By not providing that information they’re treating everyone as mugs.”
Extracted in full from: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/anthony-albanese-chris-bowen-premiers-to-war-game-worstcase-scenarios-as-australias-fuel-crisis-deepens/news-story/8c98e7dcb7ea2f7fe3604e9479bfac76
