Karl Stefanovic has grilled Treasurer Jim Chalmers over the government’s claims of strong fuel supply.
On Thursday, the government confirmed 608 service stations, or eight percent of the nation’s 7,798 sites, were out of diesel or unleaded fuel.
The Today Show host asked why the shortages are occurring despite the government claims that the supply remains stable.
“If the supply is there… why are stations running out?” Stefanovic asked Chalmers.
Chalmers insisted that the issue is not a national shortage, but a breakdown in distribution driven by increased demand/
“The ships are arriving, the refineries are doing their job… we have very substantial supplies of fuel,” Chalmers said.
However, he acknowledged that there are “pressures in particular local areas” and said the government is working with industry and regulators to tackle this issue.
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,” he continued.
“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 joined in 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 then shared a few of the current programs the government has in place, including trying to secure fuel from international markets.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
The Treasurer also didn’t officially rule out temporarily cutting the fuel excise and the heavy road user charge for trucks.
“Do you categorically rule out the cuts to the fuel excise?” Stefanovic asked.
“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,” Chalmers replied.
“(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 the interview saying: “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.”
Images: Nine
