On The Land
21 March, 2026
Katter slams fuel security failures
WITH imported petrol prices set to cripple transport and tourism industries, farmers and families, Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter took Treasurer Jim Chalmers to task last week “for decades of government failures to secure our domestic fuel supplies with 100% Australian-made, renewable ethanol”.
Mr Katter asked the Treasurer whether the government’s budget would “continue to say ‘no’ to ethanol for another 30 years”.
“Since 2005, we’ve repeatedly moved that 32% of our fuel requirements be met from our own oil reserves – and that’s without even tapping oil shales,” Mr Katter said in Question Time last Wednesday.
Mr Katter said people across his electorate and beyond had contacted him in droves over the past week after being unable to buy any fuel at all for essential road transport, time-critical harvests, or school bus runs in remote areas.
And while the Treasurer told Parliament supply chain pressures “particularly in regional areas” were being directly addressed by the government, Mr Katter said reports of prices reaching $3.50 a litre in Sydney did not auger well for North Queensland farmers already being told they can’t be sure when to expect fuel deliveries next, or what the price for orders already placed will even be.
