{"id":570672,"date":"2026-03-28T20:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T20:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/570672\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T20:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T20:44:13","slug":"bunnings-running-low-on-this-item","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/570672\/","title":{"rendered":"Bunnings running low on this item"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bunnings is running low on jerry cans, Anthony Albanese says, as he labels fuel hoarders un-Australian and announces the government will underwrite the private sector to guarantee fuel shipments into Australia.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Sydney on Saturday, the Prime Minister revealed new legislation would be introduced on Monday to allow the underwritingand deliver \u201cshiploads\u201d of fuel.<\/p>\n

Images circulating widely online this week showing people filling up multiple Jerry cans of fuel, and Mr Albanese branded these suspected hoarders as un-Australian.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not the Australian way. People need to take what they need, and no more,\u201d Mr Albanese said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was with the head of Bunnings just last week, and had a discussion with him; they\u2019ve run out of jerry cans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not sensible. People need to act responsibly at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, NewsWire has been told Bunnings is running low on 20L cans in some stores but not totally sold out, and has adequate stocks of smaller cans across its 300 stores.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has been increased demand and stock levels differ between stores, but our team is working hard to ensure stock availability, as they always do,\u201d a Bunnings spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\"THE<\/p>\n

Anthony Albanese MP and Energy Minister Chris Bowen announced the underwriting proposal in Sydney on Saturday. Picture: NewsWire \/ Jeremy Piper<\/p>\n

The federal government will introduce amendments to the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation Act, to formalise the commonwealth\u2019s ability to underwrite additional cargoes and strategic reserves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe deal making expertise of Export Finance Australia will allow them to enter contracts of insurance or indemnity, give guarantees, make loans, or enter arrangements needed to help secure fuel supply from international markets,\u201d information from the Prime Minister\u2019s office says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Fuel Security powers help to address (price rises and shortages) by giving suppliers confidence to secure additional and discretionary cargoes \u2013 which will be used to service uncontracted demand, including regional and independent fuel suppliers,\u201d the additional information says.<\/p>\n

Six of 81 fuel shipment arrivals for April were cancelled but those shipments had already been \u201cmore than\u201d replaced, Mr Albanese said.<\/p>\n

\"Bunnings<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese claimed Bunnings is sold out of jerry cans. Picture: NewsWire \/ Andrew Henshaw<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a war that is across the other side of the world, but it\u2019s having a real impact here, as it is, in every nation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere, people in local communities, farmers, small businesses, miners, are all being impacted. And if you go to your local petrol station and there\u2019s no fuel, that causes understandable distress.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to keep our people, our economy, and our nation moving.\u201d<\/p>\n

The underwriting scheme would also help lock in fertiliser deliveries; shortages of which are compounding fuel shortages in the regions and threatening food supply.<\/p>\n

\"FUEL<\/p>\n

Anthony Albanese says motorists pulling into a service station to find the bowsers are empty cause \u201cunderstandable stress\u201d. Picture: NewsWire \/ Martin Ollman<\/p>\n

\u201cPut simply, we will use Export Finance Australia to underwrite the purchase of shiploads of fuel that will add to supply here in Australia,\u201d Mr Albanese said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis support from the government will not be business as usual. It has to be additional supplies that are available on the international market.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it literally will be underwriting the purchase of shiploads of fuel to get here to Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Energy Minister Chris Bowen has been pushing the fuel companies to be more transparent with their supply and delivery data, given hundreds of service stations are empty but no fuel shipments to Australia have been missed since the war in Iran began.<\/p>\n

Australia now has 39 days of petrol, up slightly on the pre-conflict reserve, and 30 days of diesel and jet fuel which hasn\u2019t changed since February 28.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat that tells me is that, while the fuel is flowing strongly out the door, especially to regional Australia, it also continues to flow in the door.<\/p>\n

\"THE<\/p>\n

Energy Minister Chris Bowen says the decision to release 20 per cent of Australia\u2019s fuel reserves has flowed through to regional service stations. Picture: NewsWire \/ Jeremy Piper<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery expected arrival has arrived, and our international supply chain remains secure at this point \u2026 That\u2019s important to reassure Australians,\u201d Mr Bowen said.<\/p>\n

In a sign the fuel companies are sharing more information with the government, the Minister said since the government released 20 per cent of its strategic reserves, \u201cone provider\u201d had provided an additional 20 per cent to go to farmers and regional communities which are out of fuel.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother provider\u201d has sent an extra 1200 kilolitres of diesel to a regional distributor, and another unnamed provider had delivered an extra 400 kilolitres to Dubbo in NSW in the midst of seeding season on farms.<\/p>\n

While many people fixate on the service station price, publicly available data shows the fuel costs for independent retailers are rising massively.<\/p>\n

Independent service stations fill their tanks by buying on fluctuating spot prices; Australian Institute of Petroleum figures show the spot price \u2013 the terminal gate price \u2013 hit 311.1c per litre of diesel in Sydney on Friday, 310.5c in Melbourne, and the highest was Darwin with 315.1c.<\/p>\n

On Friday, unleaded petrol spot prices were 246.7c in Melbourne and Brisbane, and 246.4c per litre in Sydney.<\/p>\n

\"FUEL<\/p>\n

Darwin has the highest fuel prices of all capital cities. Picture: NewsWire \/ Sarah Marshall<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that demand, particularly in rural Australia \u2013 because agriculture is at a very busy time \u2013 remains exceedingly high, and the supply is still not enough,\u201d Mr Bowen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we are increasing supply and working in a very complicated supply chain to get the fuel where it needs to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

International fuel shipments are available but getting more expensive and risky with fluctuating oil prices, Mr Bowen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo companies who do want to order more cargoes, in the national interest, are also facing very difficult decisions. That\u2019s the national interest; that cargo comes to Australia \u2026 we want to help the companies make the decision to buy those cargoes,\u201d Mr Bowen said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bunnings is running low on jerry cans, Anthony Albanese says, as he labels fuel hoarders un-Australian and announces…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2324,64,63,64877,28486,280283,280282,277058,44,46634],"class_list":["post-570672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-anthony-albanese","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bunnings","tag-chris-bowen","tag-export-finance-australia","tag-fuel-shipments","tag-jerry-cans","tag-news","tag-newswire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}