The next Australian Government must take action on fuel security, Australian Trucking Association (ATA) CEO Ben Maguire said today. 

The ATA represents the 50,000 businesses and 200,000 people in the Australian trucking industry. 

“The trucking industry depends on diesel. Without diesel to fuel our trucks, Australia’s supermarkets would be empty,” Mr Maguire said.

 “Australia has signed an international treaty that says we will maintain an emergency stockpile of 90 days worth of liquid fuel. But we don’t do that. In December 2018, there were only 22 days of diesel in the whole of Australia,” he said. 

The ATA’s Cabover Cabinet video for this week focuses on fuel security. 

“We don’t ask the commercial sector of this country to store fuel or have a capacity to increase production past an economic point in order to plan for some unknown security issue,” Liberal Senator Jim Molan said in the video. 

Meantime, the Labor Party has committed that it would, if elected, commence detailed consultation around the design of a government-owned National Fuel Reserve. 

Also today, the ATA released its submission to the Department of Environment and Energy’s Liquid Fuel Security Review. 

The ATA submission to the review makes recommendations that highlight the importance of fuel security for road freight and the Australian economy. 

“As well as recommending a national fuel reserve, the ATA submission recommends that the incoming government should review the Liquid Fuel Emergency Act to make sure that trucking businesses cannot be sued if they prioritise essential customers in line with government policy during a fuel security emergency,” Mr Maguire said. 

Watch the video 

Read the ATA submission 

View the Cabover Cabinet series