Transport

CPA Australia warns today’s interest rate rise will deepen the cost-of-living crisis and make it tougher for many small businesses – particularly those heavily reliant on fuel. With fuel prices surging, inflation remaining stubborn across essential goods and services, and consumer confidence weak, households and businesses face a perfect storm of rising costs and weakened resilience.

When governments start calling emergency roundtables it usually means one thing: The planning should have happened years ago. Last week the Western Australian Government convened a “Fuel Security Roundtable” in response to supply disruptions linked to rising tensions in the Middle East.

Member for Barwon Roy Butler MP says the fuel supply pressure now being felt across regional New South Wales was foreseeable, avoidable, and made worse by a failure of planning at the federal and state level that he intends to keep pushing back against.

A fifth-generation family operation in Bulahdelah is absorbing a $7,800 weekly fuel surge to keep hardwood moving to Australia's cities. Federal Parliament is now asking why. Forest and Wood Communities Australia is warning that soaring regional fuel prices are threatening the hardwood supply chain that feeds building sites, mine shafts, vineyards, Australia's first green steel facility...

TasFarmers has warned that just as farmers grapple with a fuel supply crisis, alarm is now growing over surging farm fertiliser prices that could push food costs higher and deepen economic pressure ... TasFarmers President, Ian Sauer, said the impact would be felt across the core fertilisers farmers rely on to grow crops.

Statements from the Hon. Chris Bowen, Minister for Climate Change and Energy, regarding releasing up to 20 per cent of the baseline Minimum Stockholding Obligation for petrol and diesel and temporarily amending Australia's fuel quality standards to allow higher sulfur levels for the next 60 days.

Right now across regional Western Australia something deeply concerning is unfolding. Farmers are being told their diesel deliveries have stopped. Some have been warned supply may not resume for weeks. Others cannot lock in deliveries at all. In some cases, operations have already ground to a halt simply because there is no fuel to run the machinery. This should alarm every Western Australian.

I’m continually amazed how many people can fly to Bali yet couldn’t point to it on a map. Ask them to name the countries that sit north of Indonesia and you’ll usually get a blank look. Yet geography still matters. In fact, it quietly dictates how the global economy works.

Austinn Lane. A large crowd gathered in Port Victoria and Wauraltee over the weekend to celebrate the community's 150th anniversary, marking a major milestone in the district's history ... locals, former residents and visitors from across the region, came together to recognise the town's heritage and close-knit community.

Hugh Schuitemaker. Pressure on fuel supplies has seen a Mallee area service station frequently used by Riverlanders run dry, and is adding to anxiety being felt by farmers and growers according to the region’s State MP. Karoonda’s independent service station was as of yesterday out of fuel, with shortages sparked by panic buying due to the war in the Middle East.

TasFarmers has warned “without fuel there is no food”, calling on governments to guarantee diesel supplies for agriculture and freight as global tensions push fuel prices sharply higher. Diesel prices in parts of Tasmania have risen from about $1.87 to more than $2.17 per litre in the past week, creating uncertainty for farmers, contractors and freight operators across the state.

The news tonight ... was filled with words we didn’t want to hear about the price of fuel. Oil prices skyrocket… Prices scoring… Pain at the petrol pump… Markets in a tailspin. Any driver will see this scenario is starting to play out at country petrol bowsers close to home.

“There is fuel, but it is being kept for the city, a short-sighted approach that will have huge flow-on effects throughout regional areas and right back into the city. Planting is about to start across the electorate of Parkes and elsewhere but without diesel, it won’t happen. And how do farmers get their livestock to market?": Jamie Chaffey.

"Every empty truck on the road right now is burning diesel the country doesn't have to spare. We’ve 25 days of diesel reserves, 28,000 unfilled driver positions and a third of our trucks running empty. The maths doesn't work. The simplest thing any driver can do right now is stop driving empty": said Matt Barrie, Chief Executive of Loadshift.

"When fuel swings, manual systems fail. We need to change how we view carriers. They aren’t just ‘capacity,’ they are small businesses under immense pressure. The future of the industry depends on accelerated cash flow and intelligent route planning that slashes unnecessary fuel burn": Dean Newman, COO, Ofload.

The Nationals Member for Euroa, Annabelle Cleeland MP, has raised concerns in State Parliament this week about the redevelopment of Sunshine Station, warning the current design risks locking north-east Victorian passengers out of one of the state’s most important transport interchanges.

Dr Siri Gamage. We keep hearing about regional growth. We hear about decentralisation, productivity, housing pressures in capital cities and the promise of thriving regional communities. But here is the uncomfortable truth: growth without proper public transport is not a strategy. It is rhetoric.

Terry Collins. Business NSW Central Coast has described the recent funding announcement to accelerate the Newcastle–Sydney High Speed Rail corridor as presenting a major opportunity to accelerate jobs, investment and long-term economic growth in the region.

Patricia Gill. Registered nurse Yvette Caruso found joy in two, month-long stints aboard Mercy hospital ships offering African people life-changing surgery and medicine ... Over January, Yvette joined the surgical team aboard the Global Mercy berthed at Freetown in the west African nation, Sierra Leone.

The Sunshine Coast-based LifeFlight aeromedical crew yesterday winched a man from Mt Coolum to hospital in the first of back-to-back missions. The LifeFlight helicopter was tasked by Retrieval Services Queensland at 11.25am to a walking track on the mountain.

The last remaining tugboat that was used on the Clarence River for the sugar industry, the MV Beardmore is being considered for heritage listing, and the community have an opportunity to have their say. Built by JG Pashley and Sons in 1914 at the Harwood Mill, the 18.8 metre long and 3.4 metre wide MV Beardmore was made from local hardwood.

Greg Twelftree. SA author and journalist Max Fatchen wrote: "It's not hard to imagine the square-rigger days when the sou'wester sweeps up Spencer Gulf, hustles past Wardang and sends whitecaps racing and fishing boats rolling at their moorings by Port Victoria jetty" ... From the 1870s to 1949, farmers toiling in the dry, dusty paddocks of Koolywurtie and Wauraltee would glance seaward as 100-metre long, four-masted barques filled the horizon.