World

Mon Apr 20

This fuel crisis could last for a while. It’s time for a new approach to fuel use

Written by Peter Newman, Professor of Sustainability, Curtin University

Australia is in the middle of a fuel crisis, but the way the state and federal governments have chosen to respond signals a firm commitment to fossil fuels ^[1].

In a matter of days, Canberra found billions of dollars to make petrol and diesel cheaper. The temporary halving of the fuel excise ^[2] is costing about $2.55 billion over three months (plus GST returns ^[3]), simply to blunt the pain of oil prices without changing Australia’s dependence on oil.

Add in relief for heavy vehicles ^[4] and loans to fuel-intensive businesses ^[5], and you have a crisis package that keeps the existing, oil-hungry system running. Fuel security, in this framing, means securing fuel, not securing mobility.

How the states responded

Victorians and Tasmanians get a brief holiday from public transport fares ^[6] – a month of free or heavily discounted travel. There was no permanent increase in public transport services or enduring fare reform. There was also no new support for electric vehicles (EVs), accelerated installation of bike lanes or bus priority lanes.

Outside those two states, public transport riders got nothing. Queenslanders remain on their 50 cent fares – which is a positive. There were no new incentives for electric vehicle drivers. People walking or cycling remain invisible in the oil crisis response.

In Western Australia, the proposed policy intervention ^[7] is to spend millions creating WA’s own storage of petrol and diesel ^[8].

The message seems to be: if you’re part of the fossil-fuel system, the state will cushion you; if you’re trying to live outside it (and perhaps support action on climate change), you’re on your own.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Consider if we spent just one-third of the excise relief – roughly $850 million over the same three-month window – and imagine what could be achieved if we made ending fuel use the goal.

Here’s what could be done

First, we could make all public transport free nationwide for three months and boost peak-hour frequencies ^[9] where systems are already at capacity. Free fares coupled with greater frequency are not just a cost-of-living measure but a continent-wide experiment in habit formation. Give millions of Australians an easy way to test life without the car commute, and some will never go back ^[10].

Second, we could target the heaviest fuel users with rapid electrification support, similar to what mining giant Fortescue has announced ^[11]. With a few hundred million dollars, government could fund tens of thousands of EV rebates for high-kilometre drivers. These include taxis, ride share, fleet vehicles and regional commuters, where the vehicle uses more than 5-6 times the amount of petrol or diesel every year ^[12] than average users. Add in support for e-bikes and e-cargo bikes ^[13] for households, couriers and local businesses, and you support short car trips and local deliveries that no longer need fuel.

Third, we could fast-track the infrastructure that makes these choices stick. A national push for kerbside and workplace charging ^[14] would remove one of the big psychological and practical barriers to EV uptake ^[15].

At the same time, bus lanes and intersection bus priority on key corridors ^[16] could be deployed quickly, and tram boulevards ^[17] within a slightly longer time.

Fourth, we can begin the hard transition to electric trucks, tractors and agricultural machinery, which is underway in China ^[18]. China now has 50% of its new truck sales as electric, and will release cheap versions on the global market.

Finally, instead of spending $20 million on advertising ^[19] that asks drivers to use less fuel, we could spend the same amount explaining how to get through this crisis by using public transport, active transport such as walking and riding, and EVs. And, we could fund those options, as above.

Time to change the system

The point is not to pretend we can fully transform the transport system in three months, but we can make a start. The world has been surprised at how quickly solar, batteries and now EVs have been adopted. It has been the fastest energy transition in history ^[20].

With the same fiscal firepower that Canberra found to support the oil industry almost overnight, we could start to end our oil dependence.