Karl Stefanovic tears apart Albanese government’s claim about fuel crisis as petrol stations run dry: ‘Blind leading the blind’
Karl Stefanovic has grilled Treasurer Jim Chalmers over the growing gap between the government’s claims of strong fuel supply and the reality facing Australians at the pump.
In a tense exchange, the Today program host repeatedly asked how shortages could be spreading across the country if, as the government insists, supply remains stable.
On Thursday, the government confirmed 608 service stations across Australia were out of either diesel or unleaded fuel – about eight per cent of the nation’s 7,798 sites.
Stefanovic asked: ‘If the supply is there… why are stations running out?’
Chalmers pushed back, insisting the issue is not a national shortage but a breakdown in distribution driven by surging demand.
‘The ships are arriving, the refineries are doing their job… we have very substantial supplies of fuel,’ he said.
But he conceded there are ‘pressures in particular local areas’ and said the government is working with industry and regulators to redirect fuel where it is needed most.
Stefanovic hit back: ‘It doesn’t make any sense to people that you’re saying the supply is there, the fuel is here, and we’re guaranteed that supply.
‘When some people in the regions are travelling hundreds of kilometres just to get fuel, that stations in the city areas have run out, the signs have literally gone out, the lights have gone out in some of these stations.
‘And for you to keep saying that, reiterating that there is supply when there isn’t in their local service station, when people are travelling hundreds of kilometres to get fuel and then going home, or they’ve got to work somewhere, and the expenses just keep rising and food prices keep rising, and you say everything’s okay, but it’s just not.’
Stefanovic’s co-host Sarah Abo also lashed out at Chalmers, saying ‘things are getting worse’.
‘People are not in a better situation now than they were last week, than they were yesterday, than they were three weeks ago, four weeks ago,’ she added.
‘You say there are solutions, no one knows what those solutions are. National Cabinet has already met, you’re meeting again, it just feels a bit hopeless.’
Chalmers said: ‘Well, let me tell you what those solutions are then, Sarah.
‘You secure more fuel on international markets, that’s what we’re trying to do. Support our refineries, that’s what we are doing. Helping with the cost of living, with tax cuts and in other ways – that’s what we’re doing.
‘Cracking down on the rip-offs, empowering the ACCC to issue bigger fines, that’s what we’re doing.
‘This is all part of our plan, and the National Cabinet meeting today is a good opportunity to work together, to work through these issues, to do that in a really constructive way, coordinated way, ideally consistent way, to deal with these very, very real issues that Karl has been raising with me this morning.’
Chalmers also refused to rule out temporarily cutting the fuel excise and the heavy road user charge for trucks.
Fuel excise is a flat sales tax levied by the federal government on petrol and diesel bought at the bowser.
The current rate is 52.6 cents in excise for every litre of fuel purchased.
People driving heavy vehicles – such as buses, coaches, and trucks – on public roads also pay a Road User Charge for each litre of diesel they buy.
‘Do you categorically rule out the cuts to the fuel excise?’ Stefanovic asked Chalmers.
The Treasurer avoided answering the question directly, but did not categorically say no.
‘What we’ve said about that, Karl, is we’ve focused more on supply, more on distribution, more on the rip offs, more on cost of living relief in other ways, but obviously, we always have contingencies and fall backs,’ he said.
‘(But) this government always tries to do the right thing by people, and we always try and help with the cost of living in the most responsible way that we can, weighing up a whole range of factors.’
Abo ended the interview by saying she felt ‘the war is out of our hands’.
‘We have no control over it, but it just feels as though it’s the blind leading the blind. We don’t actually know what the solution is,’ she added.