After weeks of pretending everything is fine, the government has authorised itself to use emergency powers to manage the fuel supply crisis.

It has done this with no coherent plan.

The Prime Minister and his Energy Minister have been gaslighting the public for weeks, repeatedly mentioning so-called ‘panic buyers’, harking back to the days of Covid toilet paper shortages. This added layer of misplaced blame has led to farmers, who have always filled jerry cans for their equipment, facing abuse at the pump.

Before we go on, it must said that Australians are not to blame for the fuel crisis.

Decades of Labor and Coalition governments made the decision to cut corners and costs in favour of what they saw as a cheaper globalised world.

It was easier to buy just-in-time shipments from Asia than make the case for self-sufficiency in the Budget while parroting Net Zero talking points.

Governments ignored international fuel reserve standards. They brushed aside valid warnings as fearmongering. And they added environmental and employment legislation (which they knew would make domestic refineries uncompetitive in the global market) because the rhetoric was popular with voters.

Our Pacific neighbours did not do this.

This fuel crisis is the result of choices made by political parties who are blaming the stress test of the Iran war instead of their own indifference to national security.

No Australian should feel guilty for a jerry can at the pump. They are victims of political negligence.

It is difficult to gauge how much trouble we’re in thanks to a lack of transparency.

As recently as Friday we were told the fuel shortages were merely ‘distributional’. The Prime Minister said, ‘There hasn’t been a reduction in supply of fuel into Australia or indeed production.’

Chris Bowen added, ‘Australia’s supply of petrol and diesel and oil will be the same, if not higher, than it normally would be.’

Really? To quote Pauline Hanson, please explain…

Why have hundreds of pumps run dry? Why are farmers reporting their fuel orders cancelled or delayed? Why are regional pumps being denied deliveries? If we have ‘higher than normal’ levels of fuel, why is the government convening a National Cabinet and giving itself emergency powers? Why have 347 service stations in New South Wales run dry? Why is there no certainty beyond May? Why can’t Bowen and Albanese be honest with the Australian people?

Availability is not the only concern. The rising cost is set to cause significant supply chain shocks and add horrific price rises to food and other industries. This comes at the worst possible time, with the economy dragging itself through a cost-of-living crisis leftover from Covid-era lockdowns and spending.

The collapse of the private sector and a mass slaughter within the employment market is on the cards. This is a situation made much worse by Labor importing hundreds of thousands of migrants into an evaporating job market.

However, the government has some control over the price of fuel. They are responsible for half the cost thanks to an incredibly greedy fuel excise.

Pauline Hanson stirred public outrage when she accused the government of collecting an extra $300 million per month in GST from rising fuel costs, forcing the topic back into the political arena.

Can you believe the government is profiting $300 million a month from the spike in fuel prices while you’re struggling?

As the pain at the pump increases, so does the government’s GST take on every litre.

We need to cut the fuel excise to give Australians immediate relief.… pic.twitter.com/9g3aygaHcu

— Pauline Hanson ?? (@PaulineHansonOz) March 25, 2026

The Coalition almost immediately echoed Hanson’s demands, with Angus Taylor calling for excise tax to be cut by half.

Taylor called out the government for failing to take leadership or show urgency.

We've asked Anthony Albanese to immediately halve the fuel tax for 3 months.

We've also put forward sensible options to fund this measure.

This would provide immediate relief to Australians who are struggling right now. pic.twitter.com/5x3IiFoFg9

— Angus Taylor MP (@AngusTaylorMP) March 27, 2026

Currently, the government collects 52.6 cents per litre. Taylor is proposing setting this at 26 cents per litre for three months.

While not stated, this will need to be paired with tight price controls to ensure the discount is passed on to consumers.

While families are being smashed at the bowser, Labor’s answer is “buy an EV” instead of backing immediate relief in slashing the fuel excise.

26c a litre isn’t everything, but it’s a start and we’ll keep pushing to make sure you pay less. pic.twitter.com/1CndIODTG5

— Angus Taylor MP (@AngusTaylorMP) March 28, 2026

‘The Prime Minister stood up yesterday and he said the answer to this is to buy an EV. That’s his answer. I mean seriously…’ said Taylor.

Critics of cutting fuel excise argue this measure would be expensive, but such complaints fail to take into account the ongoing cost of losing critical agricultural industries and businesses. These are the same people who thought lockdowns would have no lingering economic repercussions, and look where that got us.

Will the government do it?

For weeks, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has been insisting that cutting excise is not on the table.

‘That particular change is not something that we’ve been considering or costing up.’

Is the Labor government being serious admitting that it can’t be arsed to do the costings on something that might save regional areas?

However, we can take some comfort in the reality that Labor has sought out the path of least resistance cut by social media. With enough pressure, they will bend.

Right now, the Prime Minister is talking about using their new emergency powers to underwrite the purchase of fuel shipments, insisting the government wants to be ‘overprepared’.

‘Overprepared’? On which plane of reality is Albanese operating and at what point can such statements be called out as misleading?

The one thing this government is not is overprepared.

In the next breath, the Prime Minister started talking about fuel rationing and work from home arrangements in this so-called overprepared country.

For those in regional areas worried about empty pumps, Chris Bowen was quoted at the end of the week saying:

‘We know that demand is particularly high in rural Australia, because agriculture is at a very busy time, and this supply is still not enough. But we are increasing supply and working in a very complicated supply chain to get the fuel where it needs to go.’

That’s if you can afford it when it arrives. What a mess.