Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge that the Albanese government has finally heeded our advice and provided limited but immediate relief for motorists and businesses. It's been a long couple of weeks in this place trying to hammer home the real-world impacts of the liquid fuel crisis. In many of those regional areas that we represent, those impacts continue. I want to give a summary of some of the issues being raised with me in Nicholls.

Small freight operators in regional Victoria and southern New South Wales report diesel prices increasing by more than $1.50 a litre overnight, placing immediate pressure on cash flow and threatening business viability. Owners-drivers and family freight businesses in towns such as Broadford, Mooroopna and Yarrawonga say fuel now accounts for up to 30 per cent of expenditure, with weekly fuel use measured in thousands of litres.

Employees in logistics-dependent regional businesses report fuel levies of 25 per cent and 30 per cent being passed through by transport providers, driving up costs for businesses and customers alike. Regional waste, recycling and sanitation businesses warn that restricted access to diesel threatens continuity of essential services for schools, hospitals, aged-care facilities and local communities, raising public health concerns. Regional households and small-business owners describe fuel as not optional but essential, linking rising petrol and diesel costs to broader cost-of-living pressures, inflation and interest rate stress.

There are significant impacts on agriculture and food supply. Livestock, rural and agricultural transport operators in regional Victoria report diesel price spikes to more than $3.20 per litre, combined with rationing and transaction limits as low as 50 litres, making normal operations unworkable. There are harvest contractors in northern Victoria who describe prolonged diesel shortages leaving machinery idle during critical harvest windows, directly threatening feed supplies for dairy farms and risking adverse animal welfare outcomes. Bulk fuel distributors in regional electorates report running out of diesel within hours of delivery and forced rationing for farmers and extreme volatility in replacement costs making day-to-day trading impossible.

It's affecting infrastructure as well. Small regional transport contractors working on government funded infrastructure projects are reporting to me that they're absorbing thousands of dollars per week in additional diesel costs, with fuel levies not being passed through contractual chains. Operators warn this creates a real risk of withdrawal from projects, workforce disruption and delays to nationally significant infrastructure delivery.

There are also human costs and community consequences. Workers commuting daily between regional towns report weekly fuel costs more than doubling, forcing changes to work travel, family routines and household budgets. Across regional communities, constituents consistently link fuel insecurity and price shocks to mental health strain, business stress and uncertainty about the future.

We don't know when the conflict in the Middle East will end or when supply chains will return to normal. We are told there will still be a long sting in the tail of this crisis. Supply is especially an issue for farmers, and the NFF president, Hamish McIntyre, said after the National Cabinet meeting that pressing shortages and crippling costs still need to be addressed through 'an agriculture-specific plan to secure fuel supply for farmers and fishers, including clear "trigger points" for government action to safeguard food production' and 'the inclusion of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry as critical industries under the Liquid Fuel Emergency Act 1984' as well as 'targeted small business support for those across the supply chain facing acute financial pressures.'

We have been fielding these calls from our regional businesses for the last three weeks, and we have been putting them to the government all through question time over the last two weeks. It is pleasing to see the government beginning to take this seriously, but there is more to do. There is a longer question than the immediate issue of getting us through this particular Middle Eastern crisis, and that is addressing our vulnerability to overseas supply chains, particularly when it comes to liquid fuel supplies. Our long-term strategy for this ensures our food security, our defence security and our national sovereignty.

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