Fuel rationing a chance in Australia if war continues to trim global oil supplies, experts say
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-16/fuel-rationing-on-the-horizon-in-australia-if-iran-war-continues/106452562
Fuel rationing a chance in Australia if war continues to trim global oil supplies, experts say
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-16/fuel-rationing-on-the-horizon-in-australia-if-iran-war-continues/106452562
48 Comments
Guess we’ll see what the markets say when they reopen today.
Donald fuckwit trump and the Benjamin fuckwit netanyahu need to pay for all our petrol.
They are slimy pieces of shit who need to be dropped into the centre of Iran
Fuel rationing is already happening in parts of Regional SA, with some towns running dry or only receiving a limited supply.
Meanwhile in some Regional WA, some stations are (rightfully) prioritising emergency service vehicles.
How are people gonna go to work or do work to make money? Does the government really want its people to not pay their bills?
Sick. People are driving over 100km a day to get to my job. No public transport. Let’s see how that works out
We only have a third of the fuel reserves that we are supposed to have, and it’s been this way for a long time, but of course successive governments didn’t bother with spending money to increase that to the correct levels because that doesn’t win votes. Now after years of cab kicking, we will feel the pain. Hopefully this is a wake up call and national resilience is taken more seriously and proactively.
Fuel is going to go up in price forever. It’s getting more and more difficult to find oil. Wars will increasingly be faught to secure oil supplies.
The sooner we switch to electric cars the better. I’ve been driving electric for 6 years. I’ve paid almost zero to run my car. I understand it won’t suit everyone, but it is a viable alternative for most people.
There are decent electric cars for under $40k now. Factor in much less servicing costs and much cheaper fuel, they will be far cheaper that a fossil fuel car over a 5 to 10 year run.
Oh I chose a real bad time to need to fly to Queensland for a weekend. Fingers crossed we can get two more weeks without flights getting cancelled
>If widespread fuel rationing is introduced in Australia, will motorists and businesses be ready?
No! Of course not! Rationing hasn’t been part of the western world for almost 80 years now. Our culture cannot accommodate that kind of behaviour.
Also, the Epstein Alliance’s (US/Israel) assault on Iran is wrong, the Albanese government is wrong for supporting it, and it’s because of lawless and reckless military action by our allies that fuel prices are rising.
If it really is just because of ‘panic buying’ we should see a big drop in consumption or at least a return to normal soon as everyone either uses the fuel they have or sits on their stockpile.
Lock it in guys if this goes 10 more days.
Donald and Ben have caused this shit situation. I’m sick and tired of both of those fuckwits.
Just jump on it quickly now, start with “if you can work from home, work from home” that should do something to reduce demand, leave the fuel for jobs that really need it, not the jobs that have to justify realestate spending
Can I put toilet rolls in my fuel tank? Asking for a friend.
So that whole working from home thing, maybe it needs another look.
Watch businesses lose the absolute plot when working from home is encouraged if people can’t drive into the office.
I wonder what this will mean for us parks and gardens workers using petrol to get around to clients
I’d like the opportunity to work from home again if possible – these notorious b.i.g. prices are ludicrus.
Looks like the electric motorcycle will be getting a workout!
But no WFH not back on the table
There’s a loophole, just pay in Chinese Yuan.
This is why everyone needs to pressure the government to improve PT and active transport options so people who have no other option can still drive.
Not to mention the other benefits that will come with less cars on the road in general.
If Steve-o and Rob-o could stop hording diesel for their 25L/100km LandCruisers and Ranger Raptors that would be a big help too.
I’m so glad they removed the financial barriers for blokes to buy ford raptors just in time for this fuel crisis.
>He said Australia’s political leaders had failed for years to plan for a situation like this, and the fact that we only had two oil refineries left in the country was symptomatic of our failure to plan ahead.
>”I have had people in the Department of Energy 10 years ago tell me they didn’t care if we didn’t have any refineries because it was cheaper to import refined fuel,” he said.
Gosh, wonder who was in charge back then? No need to guess, it was the LNP! They’ve screwed up Australia for decades, privatising and offshoring everything, and I still keep hearing about how both parties are the same. One party has largely been in power over the last 3 decades, and anyone who isn’t willfully blind can see the resultant damage today.
A related article on Robinvale, a town in Victoria, running out of fuel noted that there was more than enough fuel available but the industry ran on skinning inventory these days where there was only 24 hours of reserve locally instead of 3-4 days. This is a distribution problem caused by the petrol companies looking to gain the largest profit margin. Rampant capitalism, in other words.
I’m sure there’ll be people once happy with the government’s hands-off attitude now pointing the finger at them and asking, “Why aren’t they doing more?”
When do we get celebrities doing a chorus version of ‘Imagine’ from the comfort of their multimillion dollar mansions?
There’s a reason the status quo with Iran held for decades.
I just started to panic buy fuel after I finally finished off my 7,000th 24 pack of bog rolls I bought 6 years ago today. I’m sure petrol lasts 6 years as well guys, right??
We need to keep fuel for the industries that need it the most (farming and trucking) and limit it for the weekend hobbiest.
Its interesting seeing people cry murder over this when they had eletric cars for a long time now.
cars not reliant on terrorist countries.
Do yourself a favor or continue to be at the mercy of foreign terrorist countries
I wonder if this fuel shortage will inspire a return of the “appropriate technology” movement that was quite prevalent for a while after the 1970’s oil crisis?
Visiting Perth at the moment (I live in Japan now). While public transportation has improved somewhat in the last 20+ years here… it’s still so far behind places not designed around owning a car. Perhaps Perth isn’t the best example of Australia infrastructure (I’m sure Melbourne is a lot better for public transportation) with everything so spread out… but until both major political parties get behind major infrastructure changes for roads, EVs, and housing – nothing will change because these projects need multiple political terms in order to get things done right.
Work. From. Home.
Not everyone needs to be on the fucking road, we figured this shit out during the pandemic and it was a net positive for _EVERYONE_ except the control freak office managers
There’s a ton of criticism of previous governments not putting a greater emphasis on energy independence – but all those comments ignore the reality that most Australian refineries closed down because they were not commercially viable.
A question for all of you if/when this war ends:
• Are you willing to pay an additional 50c-$1 per litre tariff on imported oil from refineries located overseas, to level the playing field with the Australian refineries?
And this is just about refining imported crude oil, if we had to mine for our entirely supply of crude oil ourselves, the cost rises even further.
It’s a situation where you can’t have your cake and eat it too. We can either have cheap fuel or a big Australian refinery industry. If you want more local refinery capacity, it’s something we can work towards – but fuel is about to get much more expensive when we need to give them a helping hand to stay in business.
Suddenly work from home is back on again.
Rationing will happen and 3-4 day work weeks to.
Just have a look at what a lot of Asian countries are doing right now
Time to reinstate COVID protocols: work/learn from home where possible, non-essential activities/travel get canned, and distance limits on how far from home you are permitted to go
It should be essential services / essential travel on road, if people can work from home they should. Take ptv if it is possible
Depends on how rationing goes, some may try take their ration even if they don’t really need it
Honestly think there are still heaps of workplaces going into office when their work is pretty much always on a computer
Being someone who travels as part of work, I think commuting is a waste of hours of time and uses more energy 🥲
If only there was a way to harness the sun and wind to provide some form of magical power leaving only the heaviest of machinery dependent on fossil fuels.
Boy am I glad I bought an escooter for my work commute two months ago.
The actual article said that while it is a possibility it’s an unlikely one currently and that experts are saying to stop fuelling up Jerry cans and panic buying as it is driving up the prices and reducing available fuel.
Experts have also pointed out that at no point, including whilst Australia has been at war was all fuel imports halted. They also called for Australia to reassess how many refineries were here as it was clear that more needed to be open to stop reliance on international companies.
The headline is misleading and further fuels panic buying
#fucktrump
Honestly it’s an easy fix in Sydney – make public transit free, no tolls for full EV’s, encourage more WFH where possible.
Will immediately pull a lot of people out of using vehicles.
Call me crazy, but perhaps we should consider electric vehicles again (maybe some more incentives like the home battery incentives, especially for heavy industry?) Maybe call China and get a few of their electric trucks which they have been rolling out locally at a steady clip?
Feels like the constant stream of articles in the media telling us that fuel will be harder to get and more expensive in the future are more than a little unhelpful, no?
Constantly giving air time to cookers who are trying to improve their prospects at the next election can’t help matters either.
Because if you need fuel to get to work or do your work, you’ll play it safe and go fill up. And if you need to get where you’re going or get the people you love where they’re going, you’ll play it safe and fill up. Stands to reason.
I understand that certain dark corners of the Australian media will fill up extra metaphorical Jerry cans just to pour fuel on this fire, but it’d sure be nice if our national broadcaster could stop being panic merchants. Or at the very least, stop calling it a supply crisis at every opportunity. Because there are billions of litres of fuel in Australia or on ships in our territorial waters. The supply side is fine – this is demand hysteria.
In the meantime, I’ll echo a lot of the good ideas here and maybe suggest a couple of my own:
– bring back working from home wherever possible
– make public transport free
– offer zero-interest loans on motorbikes and scooters
– help motorcycle dealers accept and process cars as trade-ins on motorcycles and scooters
– offer cashback incentives to people who trade their petrol/diesel car in for a motorcycle
– do the same thing again, but for EVs
– ramp up support for battery electric mining vehicles and site electrification
– ramp up support for community solar and batteries for towns that rely on diesel generators
– implement a national road user charge for ALL passenger and light commercial vehicles, based on tare mass and taxing heavier vehicles… well, heavily. It makes more sense to me – heavier vehicles have a larger effect on roads and the drivers should pay more to maintain them as a result
I mean, that’s just a few quick ideas and yes, not all will be great for emissions. But some will be hugely beneficial for emissions, and I reckon all will be great for fuel consumption.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk, etc
can we just tell people to work from home again if its possible ? Just like the pandemic. Maybe office workers who commute via there personal transport WFH during this time.
Should have started a week ago. There should be a staged system, stage 1 stage 2 stage 3 like we do with water restrictions.
Work from home is back, baby
Get in it now BEFORE it becomes problematic. Fill a car as much as required but no more than a single 20 litre jerry for non-commercial transactions. Perfectly reasonable and will minimise the fucking hoarders who always make things difficult.