IN BRIEF
- Matt Thistlethwaite has warned that the economic shocks of the war in the Middle East would have 'a long tail'.
- The assistant foreign affairs minister also acknowledged that high fuel prices would lift the cost of groceries and other essentials.
Real-time fuel price checks will be strengthened as motorists are warned to expect high costs at the bowser even if the war in the Middle East comes to a swift end.
The number of service stations that have run out of petrol and diesel nationwide has dropped in recent days after a spike in fuel purchases in response to soaring prices and localised shortages.
Fewer than 4 per cent of 8,000 service stations across the nation were without diesel, the energy minister said on Saturday, after a reduction in fuel excise took some of the edge off high prices due to the war.
Meanwhile, the NSW and West Australian governments on Easter Sunday announced extra measures to improve data collection and public information about fuel prices while increasing monitoring of retailers.
Western Australian Premier Roger Cook said all service stations across the state would need to report their prices to the government's FuelWatch service by May — and retailers that don't comply will face increased fines of up to $4,000.
"Future measures that compel retailers to flag when they are out of fuel, or close to being, will be of great use to families, farmers and businesses, and will also help government to better identify the regions that are experiencing fuel shortages," Cook said.
In NSW, the state-run FuelCheck service will get an extra $2.2 million in funding to give motorists instant information about fuel prices from about 2,400 service stations.
Retailers that break the rules face on-the-spot fines of $1100, or court penalties of up to $22,000 for individuals and $110,000 for corporations.
Daily visits to the FuelCheck app and website soared 50-fold between January and late March, the state government said.
A compliance blitz of 1800 NSW service stations had already taken place, with 93 infringement notices issued since the start of April.
A temporary halving of fuel taxes by the federal government has helped bring down retail fuel prices, which have dropped about 30c per litre for unleaded petrol in recent days.
'Still a lot more work to do'
Energy Minister Chris Bowen said on Saturday that there were more than 50 ships carrying fuel on their way to Australia from Asian refineries, the US, Mexico and elsewhere.
New orders had more than replaced the cancelled ones and fuel companies were confident about the supply of 3.7 billion litres booked in for April and into May, he said during a weekly update on fuel supply.
He said Australia had about 39 days' worth of petrol, 29 days of diesel, and 30 days of jet fuel in reserve and that the number of petrol stations facing a shortage of fuel was declining.
"The total number of service stations without diesel in Australia, which is where the main pressure has been, is 312 out of the around 8,000 service stations," he told reporters.
"Now that does not mean that there is not still a lot more work to do, so that figure comes down to zero ... but industry and government have been working closely together to ensure that we are filling those gaps."
'It's going to have a long tail'
However, Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister Matt Thistlethwaite has warned the economic and fuel-price shocks from the war in the Middle East would be felt long after it ended.
"It's going to have a long tail, unfortunately," he told Sky News on Sunday.
"If it ended tomorrow, there'd still be effects in the coming months, but we're planning for that."
Thistlethwaite also acknowledged high fuel prices would feed into inflation, lifting the cost of groceries and other essentials.
While the government should be commended for bolstering fuel stocks, the Australian Logistics Council said it must also look towards supply chain sustainability, resilience and productivity.
"This is the most serious global supply chain interruption to energy ever, and we need to see this in the context of Australia's future," chief executive Hermione Parsons told AAP.
Any measures needed to go beyond just replacing one source of energy, such as imported fuel or crude oil, with domestic production, she said, adding that renewable diesel, fleet electrification and relying more heavily on rail transport should also be in the mix.
Thistlewaite's comments echo those of experts recently interviewed by SBS News, who said the war's impact on global oil markets — and therefore the cost of living in Australia —may take months to fully unfold.
At present, Australia depends heavily on refined fuels from Asian refineries, and many of those refineries rely on oil that would ordinarily come through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has throttled in response to US and Israeli attacks.
The narrow waterway, running between Iran and Oman, funnels oil from the Persian Gulf into global shipping lanes and, before this year's war, carried about 20 per cent of the world's supply.
Like Thistlethwaite, supply chain and logistics experts have also said that the oil-price shock induced by the disruption of shipping through the strait would drive up food prices across Australia.
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