OPPOSITION politician Bridget McKenzie has used the Ports Australia Biennial Conference in Sydney to defend the ongoing role of diesel fuel for the national economy.
While wars in West Asia and eastern Europe have caused global diesel prices to soar, Senator McKenzie said the country continued to run on diesel.
“We are one of the most diesel-dependent economies in the world, and so when diesel gets over $3 a litre. It's not just farmers that park the head up and the tractor. It literally stops our transport network,” Senator Mckenzie said.
She said the Coalition had announced a fuel shield policy, halving the fuel excise when fuel prices exceeded US$100 a barrel for two weeks.
“We will halve the fuel excise, not just for passenger vehicles, but importantly for our transport network, our heavy vehicle sector, to make sure that freight and logistics in this country can continue to run,” Senator McKenzie said.
Senator McKenzie also spoke about the importance of ports for the national economy, noting their role in the movement of minerals and farm produce.
“For many regional communities, the competitiveness of the local industry can ultimately depend on how efficiently a product can move from the farm gate, the mine, or the factory to that international gateway, and that makes port productivity a regional development issue as much as it is a transport issue,” she said.
Senator McKenzie said the domestic freight task was projected to increase substantially to 2050, and that growth cannot simply be absorbed by adding more trucks to increasingly congested roads.
“That is a recipe for disaster success. We need to maximize productive capacity of the infrastructure we already have and make strategic investments in the infrastructure are going to need 2050, and that means a much more joined-up, agreed conversation between local, state, and Commonwealth governments,” she said.
“And it means getting the connections to our port right. That includes not just roads but rail.”