{"id":575659,"date":"2026-03-31T05:11:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/575659\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:11:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:11:13","slug":"nsw-premier-calls-for-more-sovereignty-on-national-energy-supply-as-petrol-prices-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/575659\/","title":{"rendered":"NSW premier calls for more sovereignty on national energy supply as petrol prices rise"},"content":{"rendered":"

NSW Premier Chris Minns has argued Australia needs greater “sovereignty” over its energy and must electrify its economy if it is to survive future oil shocks.<\/p>\n

Unveiling fuel savings measures under the National Fuel Security Plan on Tuesday, Mr Minns said the country must look at ways it could reduce the economy’s reliance on Middle Eastern oil.<\/p>\n

“We need more sovereignty and control over our energy, and we need to be able to drive our economy independent of what happens in the Middle East,” Mr Minns said.<\/p>\n

“We have to consider the next conflict and anyone who thinks this is the last war in the Middle East is a complete mug \u2014 we have to start thinking about the future.<\/p>\n

“This is a long-term change, but the question is \u2014 do we start tomorrow or do we just wait for the next war?”<\/p>\n

Mr Minns argued increased electrification was key to reducing Australia’s exposure to oil price shocks as a result of conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

“That means more electric vehicles, it means more charging stations, it means more practical ways that we can look to the future of our economy,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"NSW<\/p>\n

Chris Minns has called for more people to drive electric vehicles. (ABC News: Warwick Ford)<\/p>\n

“We’ve got enough energy in our country from natural resources, renewable energy and battery storage, but we have to start taking decisions now so we’re not continually roiled by conflicts in the Middle East, of which we have limited, if any, control over.”<\/p>\n

Mr Minns said his government would look at ways it could encourage more electrification in the state budget and ahead of the state election in 2027.<\/p>\n

“EVs and electric vehicles can’t just be for snobs that live in the eastern suburbs. It’s got to be available for regular mums and dads,” Mr Minns said.<\/p>\n

“That means, particularly if they’re travelling and driving for work, they don’t have range anxiety and they can get access to a recharger.”<\/p>\n

Premiers meet to discuss GST fuel relief<\/p>\n

Mr Minns confirmed premiers and first ministers from across the country were meeting on Tuesday to discuss returning the windfall gain from GST on fuel back to motorists.<\/p>\n

NSW Treasurer Daniel Moohkey said the states were working on a policy model that would “mirror” the federal government’s plan to halve the fuel excise, reducing the cost of fuel by 26.3 cents a litre.<\/p>\n

“It’ll end up being somewhere between 7 to 10 cents in addition to the excise tax, is what we’re expecting it to be,” Mr Moohkey said.<\/p>\n

Mr Moohkey said it would be “unacceptable” for fuel retailers to simply hike prices up in response to the fuel excise and GST measures and said the policies must be paired with additional enforcement by the ACCC.<\/p>\n

Bigger trucks, less fuel<\/p>\n

The NSW government will allow longer, larger trucks to have greater access to the state’s road network, as it looks for ways to shore up diesel supplies.<\/p>\n

Restrictions on operating hours will be eased and curfews will be lifted to allow freight to travel, and be loaded and unloaded at night.<\/p>\n

The changes are in line with Level 2 of the National Fuel Security Plan which sets out a staged response across all governments to manage the global fuel crisis.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The new changes should see diesel prices drop. (ABC News: Timothy Ailwood)<\/p>\n

NSW Roads Minister Jenny Aitchison said the changes should result in a diesel fuel saving of between 18 and 35 per cent across the sector.<\/p>\n

“These are temporary measures, and they’ll ensure that the freight can continue to move safely and efficiently,” Ms Aitchison said.<\/p>\n

“These changes are designed to reduce fuel use in long haul transport and freight and that’ll ensure that goods continue to reach communities and businesses across NSW.”<\/p>\n

Simon O’Hara from Road Freight NSW endorsed the plan and said it was a “smart move” for the trucking industry.<\/p>\n

“We will have larger, longer trucks on the road, but we’ll have less trucks,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Fuel<\/p>\n

Hundreds of petrol stations across NSW are without at least one type of fuel. (ABC News: Timothy Ailwood)<\/p>\n

The latest Fuel Check data reveals almost 400 service stations across NSW have run out of at least one type of fuel.<\/p>\n

There are 61 service stations across NSW have run out of all types of fuel.<\/p>\n

Three hundred and ninety-two service stations have run out of at least one type of fuel that they would normally have; and 242 service stations are without diesel or premium diesel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NSW Premier Chris Minns has argued Australia needs greater “sovereignty” over its energy and must electrify its economy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,26295,50391,282292,35431,98767,130870,67507,183287,2733,16862,27990,282293,130869,157795,36568,128,285,16861,3792],"class_list":["post-575659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-chris-minns","tag-daniel-mookhey","tag-freight-nsw","tag-fuel","tag-fuel-crisis","tag-fuel-prices","tag-gst","tag-jenny-aitchison","tag-nsw","tag-nsw-government","tag-nsw-premier","tag-nsw-treasurer","tag-petrol-prices","tag-petrol-stations","tag-roads","tag-science","tag-space","tag-transport","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575659","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=575659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}