Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said that "Labor's mismanagement of fuel security and the economy is driving up inflation and hitting Australians' cost of living hard", renewing attacks on Energy Minister Chris Bowen over his handling of the escalating fuel crisis.
Taylor said Bowen "told us last week there was no problem. By the end of the week he admitted there was a national crisis". Taylor accused Bowen of being a "minister who has been asleep at the wheel".
The criticism reflects growing frustration over fuel supply distribution across rural and regional Australia. Between late February and mid-March, average petrol prices have shot up nearly 50 cents a litre across Australia's five largest capital cities, driven by fallout from the US-Israel war with Iran. Iran's naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of the world's fuel passes during peacetime, has sent petrol prices skyrocketing.
Bowen moved to address the crisis mid-March by releasing emergency fuel reserves and adjusting standards. He temporarily amended Australia's fuel quality standards to allow higher sulphur levels, which would allow around 100 million litres a month of new petrol supply that would otherwise have been exported to be blended instead into Australian domestic supply. This temporary reduction in the Minimum Stockholding Obligation (MSO) could be equivalent to up to 5 million barrels.
Yet the opposition argues these measures came too late. Taylor said "the answer to this is simple. He has to be across where the fuel is, working with the companies to get it to customers, to get it to farmers, to get it to truckies. He has failed in doing that". He claimed Bowen "allowed one of our two refineries in this country to export their fuel at this time. I mean, they should be selling it to Australians".
The government maintains reserves are adequate. Bowen told reporters Australia has 36 days of petrol and 34 days of diesel in reserve—the highest reserve level in more than a decade. Bowen has ruled out rationing fuel supplies at the moment and says that the government does not foresee having to go down that route, stating "That is not what we're contemplating. That is not predicted".
However, farmers and rural businesses report genuine strain. National Farmers' Federation President Hamish McIntyre said the situation was rapidly escalating from a fuel logistics problem into a risk for Australia's food production system and carried serious animal welfare implications, particularly for industries reliant on daily feed deliveries and livestock transport.
Consumer watchdog the ACCC has also flagged pricing concerns. Petrol and diesel price rises between 20 February and 11 March varied widely between Australian capital cities and in many cases have increased as fast as wholesale prices and in some cases by a greater extent. ACCC Commissioner Anna Brakey said "Industry need to explain this wide discrepancy urgently" and warned that "Fuel wholesalers and distributors need to be aware that we are ready to hold them to account".
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called an emergency meeting of National Cabinet to discuss Australia's fuel supply, to be conducted virtually from Tasmania on Thursday (19 March) with the leaders of all government jurisdictions, with a particular focus on getting fuel to regional outlets.
The broader policy debate reflects Australia's structural vulnerabilities. Australia, which imports a large portion of its refined fuel products, remains vulnerable to global supply shocks. Minimum stock obligations were put in place after the war in Ukraine in an effort to reverse the trend of declining reserves. While the measures have slowed the decline, they have not reversed a trend which has seen Australia's backup fuel supply diminish from its high of 310 days in 2002.