The Albanese government has formally brought BHP in to help secure diesel supplies for Australia. Rio Tinto is also providing market information. Fortescue has gone its own way entirely, starting talks with China about swapping diesel for iron ore. The reasoning is straightforward. These miners are among the largest diesel buyers in the world, they know the global fuel market, and the government has effectively admitted that it does not. Resources Minister Madeleine King is now working with BHP’s global fuel experts to help Australia “navigate the market,” in her own words.
That is not a bad outcome on its face. If the government lacks expertise, then bringing in people who have it is the right call. But the story tells us something important about how Canberra is approaching this crisis, and whose voices are being heard at the table.
For nearly two months, independent fuel retailers across Australia have been raising practical, on-the-ground concerns about the crisis. Allocation cuts from wholesalers. Supply arriving late or not at all. Pricing structures that make it impossible for small operators to compete with company-owned sites. Abuse from customers at the pump when prices move. Commercial customers leaving small towns with empty tanks because the local servo could not get enough product to fill them. None of this has been imagined. It is happening every day, at sites run by operators whose families have invested their livelihoods in serving regional and suburban communities.
The disparity is not about who is right or wrong. BHP and Rio have legitimate expertise to offer and the government should be using it. The issue is about who gets heard when policy is being shaped in real time. Big business gets the phone call. The voices of independent operators are too easily drowned out by those of the major branded networks.
This pattern matters because the operational reality of the crisis is being felt at the independent forecourt more than anywhere else. When the government appoints a Fuel Tsar, convenes National Cabinet, underwrites cargo purchases, or considers moving to Stage 3 of the National Fuel Security Plan, every one of those decisions will affect how fuel is allocated across the country. If independent retailers are not part of that conversation, the frameworks that get built will not reflect how fuel actually reaches communities. They will reflect how it reaches large industrial users and the major branded networks.
There is also a credibility question. Independent operators have been on the ground through every day of this crisis. They know which suppliers have delivered and which have not. They know which pricing structures make commercial sense and which are unworkable. They know which regional towns are at risk and why. That is institutional knowledge that the government cannot buy from a mining company, regardless of how much diesel BHP purchases each year.
ServoPro’s position on this is simple. The independent channel is not asking for special treatment. It is asking to be recognised as essential infrastructure for communities that would otherwise have no fuel supply at all, and for its operators to have a seat at the table when decisions are being made that affect their businesses and their customers. Over 2,100 members across Australia, tens of thousands of jobs, and a national footprint that reaches places no major network does. That is not a niche interest group. That is the backbone of regional and suburban fuel retailing, and it deserves to be heard.
If you are an independent operator dealing with supply issues, pricing pressure, or commercial customers asking difficult questions, get in touch with ServoPro. Your evidence is what we take to government and media on your behalf. Big business has the Prime Minister’s number. We are making sure the independent channel has ours.