Aussies are angry about fuel – and it’s no shock why.
War in the Middle East had laid bare Australia’s fuel vulnerability in what one leading expert describes as an “outrageous” failure of national planning.
Two specialists, Associate Professor Dr Marina Yue Zhang from the Australia-China Relations Institute at UTS and Professor Dani Alexander, CEO of UNSW’s Energy Institute, say the current crisis reflects years of slow policy, underinvestment and missed opportunities.
And at the heart of the issue is a widening gap between the pace of technological innovation and the speed of government response.
Dr Zhang, who studies innovation systems, says the mismatch is structural, with technological advances happening in months, while regulatory frameworks take years to catch up.
That lag is now being felt acutely in Australia’s fuel security.
“National security should always be the first priority,” Dr Zhang told news.com.au.
“That includes fuel.”
As global oil markets reel from disruptions in the Middle East, Australian motorists are facing soaring prices, tightening supply and growing uncertainty.
Reports of fuel theft, undermeasured petrol and prices pushing past $3 a litre are emerging, alongside widespread concern that Australia holds less than a month’s supply.
“That is outrageous for me,” Dr Zhang said.
“If you look at China’s strategic storage of oil, you know it’s really not an issue. [For] Japan it’s not an issue.
“But it seems for Australians, in terms of national security priorities, we focused too much on something not so substantial, that we actually missed something more urgent.”
It comes as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday called a national cabinet meeting with state premiers for Monday to consider new emergency measures to conserve fuel including carpooling, working from home when sensible and public transport discounts.
Meanwhile, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson is pushing to start rationing fuel supplies – a measure the PM insists is not yet necessary.
Senator Hanson argued rationing needs to begin in major cities, while also encouraging people in metropolitan areas to take public transport where they can to ease the demand on fuel.
“Chris Bowen and the Albanese Labor government have not been upfront and honest with the people. This is not fear mongering,” Senator Hanson said at Parliament House.
She also claimed price gouging was occurring and questioned how diesel was at $3 a litre, which meant mums and dads, tradies and essential workers are struggling to get to work.
“Both these governments have not done fuel security for this nation. We’ve got fuel here in this country … why are we running this country into the ground?” Senator Hanson asked.
“Fuel is going to go up more and more. And then you’re going to see businesses, industries, farming, everyone that’s going to go under. Then you increase costs for the mums and dads trying to buy their food. It’s a crisis we are facing.”
As of Wednesday morning, 500 service stations across Australia were now out of one form of fuel.
And one factor that has been largely falling by the wayside is how Australia’s slower transition to alternative energy technologies has left the country more dependent on imported fuels than many other nations.
The China dilemma
Accelerating that energy transition is not straightforward.
Dr Zhang points out that accessing these advanced technologies – particularly from China – is now potentially a national security concern.
Former United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo came to Australia in Donald Trump’s first term and said that if we continue to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative – if we allow Huawei and Chinese network digital communications providers into our national infrastructure – then the US would disconnect us from the Five Eyes intelligence sharing agreement, and that it would have big ramifications for our alliance.
“These technologies are not stand-alone,” Dr Zhang explained. “They are connected.”
“And can Australia allow China to take Chinese technologies to be installed in Australia? Maybe not.”
Perhaps the most obvious example for this lies in the Electric Vehicle (EV) debate. China has emerged as a world leader in the industry and with our country in the midst of dire fuel situation, EVs seemingly provide a two birds with one stone solution.
EV company BYD has recently rolled out superfast chargers in China capable of charging a car in under 10 minutes.
Dr Zhang said it takes about 40 minutes to charge her Tesla on supercharge at her Canberra home and that it was sometimes more if others were using the charger.
“Mind you, most BYDs, the battery capacities now are much bigger than Tesla’s,” she said.
“I mean, that’s just unbelievable. So nine minutes to charge – if we could have (that in) Australia, I would be really over the moon. But the reality is a no.”
A way out
Despite lagging in vehicles and infrastructure, Australia has one major strength: energy.
With around four million households equipped with rooftop solar, the country has the foundation for a different kind of transition — one where transport can be powered by domestically generated renewable energy.
“I think it’s safe to say that rooftop solar is our largest generator on the grid,” Professor Alexander said.
“More than 250,000 [household] batteries have been installed … Essentially for the system, this allows us to shift demand away from periods where we have a peak and into periods where we have surplus solar.”
Electric vehicles, when paired with solar and home batteries, could effectively turn households into mini fuel producers — reducing exposure to global oil shocks entirely.
“If you have the opportunity to charge your car using the solar on your roof, you’ll get a much better deal,” Professor Alexander said.
“Essentially, the batteries that are in cars tend to be much larger than the batteries that are in houses.”
Aussies shift gear
There are already signs that Australians are rethinking how and what they drive.
NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury says the spike in petrol prices is changing behaviour in real time.
The NRMA owns vehicle rental company Sixt, and Mr Khoury says there’s been a large recent uptake in electric or hybrid rentals.
“We’ve absolutely seen an increase in people wanting to rent hybrids … but also EVs as a result of the increased petrol prices,” he said.
“So people who are going out hiring cars are more likely now to hire hybrids and EVs than they were petrol and diesel cars.”
But he cautions that cost-of-living pressures accentuated by the current crisis remain a major barrier.
“I don’t think people are going to go out tomorrow and buy [an EV] because petrol prices are at record highs … but if you are in the market for changing your car, there is definitely more interest.”
Australian Automotive Dealer Association chief executive James Voortman says China’s influence is also increasingly visible in Australia’s own market.
“In Australia, we’ve seen massive growth in Chinese-sourced vehicles over the last five years … from less than 2 per cent in 2019 to around 20 per cent today,” he said.
“We’ve done some of the modelling through our partners, the Centre for International Economics, which shows that by 2035, China will be responsible for about 43 per cent of all the vehicles sold in Australia.
“It’s one that we expect to continue to grow. And especially in that electric vehicle segment. China has come to dominate that.
“I think around 80 per cent of all electric vehicles sold in Australia are made in China.”
Warning signs ignored
Dr Zhang says the warning signs have been clear for years, but the current crisis still arrived faster than expected.
“I’m passionate about this because we’ve been talking about this for so long. Three, four years ago, I was thinking, one day we will see this kind of challenge, and we will see this kind of crisis,” she says.
“I was talking to my friends now … saying the crisis has now hit upon us. And sooner than we expected.
“In the past four years … a lot of things have changed. I can tell you for sure, that the pace of China’s technological innovation has been faster than even I thought.”
Dr Zhang warns the world is shifting toward “resource nationalism”, as countries prioritise control over energy and critical supplies amid rising geopolitical tensions.
For Australia, which depends on the US militarily, that creates added uncertainty.
While alliances remain important, Dr Zhang argues Australia must prepare for a less stable global order.
“We need a more independent foreign policy,” she says.
“Domestic priorities should come first.
“It will be a pivotal point for people to change their mind.”
