One Fire, Two Refineries, Zero Backup Plan

Michael West Media · AAP · Friday 17 April 2026

One Fire, Two Refineries, Zero Backup Plan

A major fire at one of Australia's only two remaining fuel refineries has knocked out 40 per cent of petrol production, with the PM cutting short his Malaysia trip to respond.

Two refineries. We left ourselves two refineries and now one's on fire. Forty per cent of petrol production gone because the entire national fuel supply rests on a coin toss. Every review since 2011 said this would happen. Every government filed the report in the same drawer as the last one.

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