A new federal fuel supply taskforce, and boss, has been set up amid fears that the price crisis sparked by the Iran war is made worse in regional areas by a lack of services.
Anthea Harris has been named Fuel Supply Taskforce Co-ordinator to help middle and top tier governments co-ordinate better, brief the lower tier on the latest news and help get fuel supplies to regional areas.
It has already met at least twice this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says.
This comes amid reports that the Murray River town of Robinvale in Victoria has run out of petrol.
Harris is formerly the CEO of the Australian Energy Regulator, former Chief Executive Officer of the Energy Security Board and former Deputy Secretary for Energy in the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.
PM Albanese says the country is “well-prepared” for the current price shocks.
“Our fuel supply is currently secure but I want us to be over-prepared,” he says.
He told journalists in Hobart that “there is not less fuel in Australia today than there was three weeks ago”.
“Every single ship that was due to land here has landed here. There is not less supply. This has been an issue of increased demand.
“Both things can be true. You can have the same amount of fuel that was expected but because of a doubling, and more than doubling, in demand, that can mean shortages in some areas.
“We’re doing all that we can to secure our supply and to get it to the places that need it. My message is ‘please do not take more than you need’. That is how you can help,” Albanese says.
Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen also reinforced the message that Australia is “better prepared than before”.
“Our reserves are now held onshore, we’ve invested in refineries and we’ve acted quickly to address local supply shortages,” he says.
FUEL CRISIS HITS ROBINVALE
Meanwhile, the federal Citizens Party says dwindling fuel supplies and a lack of services, like banking, has hit even harder.
It points to bank customers in Robinvale on the NSW-Victoria border (70km east of Mildura) who normally drive 200km to bank but which has now run out of petrol, national chairman Robert Barwick says.
“Successive governments allowed banks to close thousands of branches across (the country) and regional Australia so now entire towns risk being cut off from essential banking services.”
The party is pushing for a public bank to operate out of post offices in regional areas like Coober Pedy (South Australia), Carnamah (WA), Queenstown (Tasmania) and Tom Price (WA).
“Having to drive these distances just to access an essential service like banking was already a crisis for these towns but now the (petrol) crisis will cut many people off altogether,” Barwick says.
The Citizens Party is a federally registered political party founded in 1988 but has no candidates elected to parliament.
OTHER FUEL NEWS: panic buying ‘is pointless’
