Australia should aim to replace five per cent of its liquid fuel supply with low carbon fuel by 2035, said Australian Trucking Association (ATA) CEO Mathew Munro in response to the federal government’s consultation paper on securing Australia’s cleaner fuels industry.
Munro said the targets in the consultation paper, which could be as high as 20 per cent, are far too ambitious.
“They would dramatically increase the price of fuel and would require large imports of refined fuel or feedstock,” Munro said.
“Our submission aims to balance the objectives of affordability, resilience, reducing carbon emissions, usability in today’s truck engines and the opportunity to create new industries.
“To do this, the government should aim to replace no more than 5 per cent of Australia’s liquid fuel supply with low carbon fuel by 2035.”
The ATA’s submission warns against including biodiesel in the low carbon mechanism.
“The truck OEM members of the ATA’s Industry Technical Council have warned that modern truck engines are typically designed to use fuel that meets the diesel fuel quality standard,” Munro said.
“The standard restricts biodiesel to no more than 5 per cent. In contrast, renewable diesel is a drop in replacement for conventional diesel.”
The ATA has also released its submission about the government’s consultation paper on fuel security and resilience.
“Australia must work toward meeting our IEA obligation to hold an emergency fuel reserve equivalent to 90 days of net fuel imports,” Munro said.
“The capacity constraints at major storage sites should be addressed with a focus on supporting smaller storage locations in regional Australia, including storage at road transport businesses.”
Munro also cited the separate submission from the Livestock, Bulk and Rural Carriers Association that goes into detail about regional storage.
Extracted in full from: https://bigrigs.com.au/2026/09/21/ata-sounds-alarm-over-proposed-fuel-target/
