Federal Member for Blair Shayne Neumann has welcomed the Albanese Government’s announcement it had established a Fuel Supply Taskforce to be led by Coordinator Anthea Harris, following a meeting of National Cabinet this week.
This is a new role and the Coordinator will be responsible for the following:
• Leading a new cross-agency Fuel Supply Taskforce that will be established in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
• Driving coordination between the Commonwealth, and the States and Territories on fuel security and supply chain resilience.
• Providing consistent, coordinated updates to the Commonwealth and States and Territories on our fuel supply outlook as well as our domestic fuel
distribution.
• Supporting State and Territory governments to get fuels to the regions where they are in demand, and act as a single convening point for fuel supply and forward planning.
Mr Neumann said this was a cross-portfolio coordination role that would ensure we shore up our fuel supplies and fuel gets to where it is needed most.
“It will bring together experts and industry to protect our fuel supply, and make sure we have the latest information on supply and demand,” Mr Neumann said.
“We’ve already released additional fuel from our reserves, and changed the rules so we can keep more fuel here that would otherwise have been exported. This is all about making sure fuel is there when locals need it.”
Mr Neumann reiterated the Prime Minister’s message to motorists to not take more fuel than they needed.
“How you can help is to think of others, be a good neighbour, a good community member, and a good Australian. It’s not the Australian way to panic buy or stockpile at this time.”
The Government will be announcing more measures to prepare the nation for supply chain challenges over coming days and weeks.
Mr Neumann also welcomed the ACCC’s decision this week to launch an enforcement investigation into alleged anti-competitive conduct in diesel supply by the major fuel suppliers Ampol, BP, Mobil and Viva Energy.
This follows the ACCC receiving reports concerning diesel availability to independent wholesalers and distributors servicing regional and rural Australia.
“Regional Australians, including people in my electorate, deserve transparency and the full protection of our competition laws,” Mr Neumann said.
“Although their investigation is still at the preliminary stage, the Government expects the ACCC to take firm action where it finds misconduct.”
