{"id":346523,"date":"2026-03-25T05:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T05:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/346523\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T05:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T05:38:07","slug":"pointing-fingers-at-australias-petrol-panic-buyers-only-fuels-demand-and-hides-who-really-is-to-blame-tarryn-phillips-danielle-couch-and-carmen-vargas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/346523\/","title":{"rendered":"Pointing fingers at Australia\u2019s petrol \u2018panic buyers\u2019 only fuels demand \u2013 and hides who really is to blame | Tarryn Phillips, Danielle Couch and Carmen Vargas"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Australians stock up on jerry cans<\/a> amid fears of oil shortages due to war in the Middle East and politicians label such behaviour as \u201cun-Australian\u201d, a familiar blame game is taking place.<\/p>\n

But pointing the finger at \u201cpanic buyers\u201d misses the point, obscures the real problems and can make matters worse. We can learn a lot from the way we handled \u2013 and mishandled \u2013 the Covid-19 toilet paper crisis.<\/p>\n

During the Covid lockdowns in Australia, toilet paper was suddenly in short supply, prompting genuine anxiety and a wave of lighthearted memes<\/a> \u2013 along with similar messages berating \u201cpanic buyers\u201d for their behaviour. We analysed how \u201cpanic buying\u201d was portrayed in the media and by politicians, revealing how this coverage<\/a> can fuel anxiety, drive bulk buying and stigmatise already vulnerable groups.<\/p>\n

Blaming \u201cpanic buyers\u201d tends to obscure what\u2019s really going on. During the lockdowns, bulk buying was framed as irrational, antisocial and immoral. Individual shoppers were blamed for creating disorder and chaos through panicked, frenetic behaviour. They were described in ways usually reserved for animals: moving in collective nouns such as \u201cpacks\u201d, \u201cherds\u201d and \u201chordes\u201d while engaging in such behaviours as \u201cflocking\u201d, \u201cstripping\u201d and \u201cswooping\u201d. We are already seeing headlines calling stockpiling petrol a \u201cdog act\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This language distorts the problem and dehumanises the people involved.<\/p>\n

Adaptive purchasing behaviour (a more objective term that is preferred by researchers) is a deeply human and historically common response to uncertainty. People have often stockpiled during times of disaster. What people buy in bulk depends on the context: it was clothing and fabric<\/a> in the US during the second world war, duct tape<\/a> in Washington DC during a terrorism threat and fuel<\/a> in the UK in the lead-up to Brexit. There also was a surge in toilet paper consumption<\/a> in Japan during the oil shock of the 1970s.<\/p>\n

In all of these cases, focusing on individual behaviour distracted from the global crises and structural issues that produced feelings of uncertainty. Similarly, today\u2019s fuel panic risks being misdiagnosed as an individual moral failure rather than a systemic one.<\/p>\n

double quotation markIn addition to creating \u2018villains\u2019, crisis narratives also cast \u2018heroes\u2019 and \u2018victims\u2019 in misleading ways<\/p>\n

We also found that not all \u201cpanic\u201d is treated equally and who gets blamed matters. During the Covid lockdowns, media narratives disproportionately blamed lower-income shoppers. Recycled images of people filling up their trolleys with toilet paper or scuffling over products in supermarket aisles often featured buyers from disadvantaged suburbs. There was little coverage of the fact that Australia\u2019s wealthiest suburbs accounted for the highest demand for the online toilet paper brand<\/a> Who Gives a Crap, quickly driving it out of stock. In other words, wealthier Australians were also stockpiling but in ways that were less visible and less criticised.<\/p>\n

Moreover, as often happens in times of crisis,<\/a> migrant communities tend to be scapegoated. In the coverage of \u201cpanic buying\u201d during Covid-19, the behaviour was regularly referred to as \u201cun-Australian\u201d. Rumours were promulgated in the media by \u201canonymous sources\u201d that the Chinese community was buying in bulk to sell overseas<\/a>. The energy minister, Chris Bowen, has just called out buying jerry cans as \u201cun-Australian\u201d<\/a>. We need to resist this familiar terrain.<\/p>\n

In addition to creating \u201cvillains\u201d, crisis narratives also cast \u201cheroes\u201d and \u201cvictims\u201d in misleading ways. While in-store shoppers were vilified during Covid-19, Australia\u2019s supermarket giants were positioned as either innocent victims or as virtuous \u201cheroes\u201d saving the day. This framing deflected attention from the role of these large institutions in monopolising the industry and shaping (and profiting from<\/a>) the scarcity.<\/p>\n

We must continue to scrutinise fuel markets and distribution failures. Some commentators have argued that the Australian government has systematically reduced its oil refineries over time and failed to plan ahead<\/a> for oil shocks that have happened before and will happen again.<\/p>\n

Another planning problem relates to equity and access. The greatest need for fuel is often in regional, remote and farming areas, where there\u2019s a strong reliance on independent fuel suppliers<\/a> now bearing the brunt of the shortages.<\/p>\n

And, as the cost of living continues to increase, it is understandable that those already living on the edge may feel a need to buy extra petrol now before the price goes up. By portraying individual \u201choarders\u201d as the problem, attention shifts away from corporate profiteering, bad policy decisions and crisis management failures.<\/p>\n

Perhaps most importantly, saturated media and social media coverage of \u201cpanic buying\u201d can amplify the behaviour it condemns. The intense focus on empty shelves and panic during Covid-19 helped create a feedback loop: the more people saw shortages and community anxiety, the more they rushed to buy. Likewise, constant coverage of panic, crime<\/a> and competition over fuel risks exacerbating demand rather than calming it.<\/p>\n

Past examples of adaptive purchasing behaviour are a good reminder of the role that commentators and authority figures can play in fuelling or defusing consumer anxiety in times of crisis. Framing fuel stockpiling as \u201cpanic buying\u201d risks scapegoating individuals, amplifying fear and distracting from the real problems we need to focus on solving \u2013 namely, Australia\u2019s failure to properly plan<\/a> for and regulate its fuel security.<\/p>\n

Tarryn Phillips is a medical anthropologist and associate professor of crime, justice and legal studies in La Trobe University\u2019s department of social inquiry. Danielle Couch is a public health researcher, health sociologist and adjunct senior research fellow at Monash Rural Health. Carmen Vargas is a research fellow at Deakin University\u2019s school of health and social development<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Australians stock up on jerry cans amid fears of oil shortages due to war in the Middle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-346523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}