OPEN LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER

Published on 14 April 2026

Dear Prime Minister

I write in relation to your “Every little bit helps” advertising campaign launched over the weekend urging Australians to limit their fuel use.

I understand that public life can be a brutal aspiration, as it involves thanklessly weighing up solutions that strike the right balance between solving a problem, while mitigating impacts to others, but this advertising campaign appears to have had absolutely no thought given to mitigating the devastating impacts it will create.

I have been inundated with calls from Balonne residents and business owners who are rightly concerned about the absolute economic devastation this advertising campaign will cause to our regional economy.

In our rural setting, we can’t simply get on public transport, ride a bicycle or rely on electric vehicles to run our agricultural economy and tow caravans, we need an affordable and reliable fuel supply.

Tourism is a vital pillar of our regional economy, generating jobs and sustaining livelihoods, and the last thing it needs is a taxpayer-funded campaign advising travellers to stay away. I urge you to rethink this approach.

In a matter of days, our South West Queensland Councils launched a Fuel Tracker Dashboard, which shows the fuel availability in our region to give travellers information about the available fuel supply and the confidence to travel here.

This Fuel Tracker Dashboard came to fruition with little to no funding, just the ingenuity and commitment of our Council teams who understand how vital tourism is to our region.

I implore you to please follow our lead and develop a National Fuel Tracker Dashboard that allows people to make their own decisions about where and when they choose to travel.

While you’re navigating our Country through this critical time, please spare a thought for the hard-working business owners and tourism operators who have taken a risk on setting up an enterprise that generates flow-on jobs and benefits throughout regional Australia.

Mayor Samantha O’Toole

BALONNE SHIRE

CHAIR – South West Queensland Regional Organisation of Councils

Fuel Tracker Dashboard - https://fueltracker.swqroc.com.au/