Today in Parliament, Abigail contributed to a debate on Australia's lack of fuel sovereignty leaving communities stranded and called on the Government to audit and redistribute the taxpayer-subsidised diesel being hoarded by mining companies.

Abigail said:

On behalf of The Greens and as The Greens' energy and Treasury spokesperson, I contribute to debate in support of the motion. The Greens support the Government's amendment, which I do not think waters down the motion too much. I will speak to the Government's amendment first. The Greens agree that those most in need in a fuel rationing situation would absolutely be those in the regions but also people in non-regional areas, particularly people with disability and others who simply cannot access public transport. We need to make sure that we do not leave those people behind as we go.

It is interesting that we are in this situation. I have heard from experts about Australia's lack of fuel sovereignty. They have been asking governments to have a plan for this exact situation for a very long time. Australia is not properly prepared for the current war scenario. It is too reliant on imported fuel, too thin on reserves and too exposed when a war, which Australia has signed up to, is disrupting supply. The experts are saying the crisis is not going to be short-lived, and that it will impact on other products, food security and everything else. Fuel security experts have been talking about the need to embrace electric vehicles and renewables for a very long time, not simply because of climate change, which The Greens might have as their primary focus, but as a matter of domestic energy security and energy sovereignty.

Across the State over 100 service stations have run dry. Communities across the State are being left stranded, and for those where there is petrol, particularly in the metropolitan areas, petrol stations are cranking up the price. Members have talked a lot about that in the House over the past little while. The Government needs to have a plan that looks at where all of the fuel reserves are at the moment. This morning I gave notice of a motion about making sure that we look at mining operations, which typically have fuel storage capacity designed for 23 days of operational requirements. They are currently hoarding hundreds of millions of litres of taxpayer‑subsidised diesel reserves as a private hedge against fuel volatility, and the Government needs to address that. Therefore, I move:

That the question be amended by inserting after paragraph (3):

(4)That this House calls on the Minister for Energy and the Minister for Natural Resources to immediately conduct an audit of all available fuel supplies on New South Wales mining sites.

(5)That this House calls on the Government to immediately act to intervene to prevent mining company fuel hoarding at a time of statewide and national fuel supply uncertainty.

Read the full debate in Hansard here.

25 March 2026