General News
30 April, 2026
Fuel, roads among biggest concerns
CONCERNS surrounding the cost of filling up the tank and the state of the region’s roads were among the big-ticket items being discussed when Member for Wannon Dan Tehan visited the region last week.
Mr Tehan was on a whirlwind tour of towns across the electorate last Friday, including Caramut and Mortlake, to hear first-hand from constituents regarding their concerns, wants and feedback.
He said concerns surrounding both the supply and costs of fuel had become a major source of concern for people in the region.
“Everyone wants to talk about the price of fuel and what it means for the cost of living,” Mr Tehan said.
“People have also brought up roads, in particular the size and scale of potholes at the moment.
“People are quite frightened by the state of the roads.
“There is also real concern about what is happening in the lead up to both the Federal and State Budgets.
“People are worried we’re spending far too much money on wasteful things, where we aren’t getting any value for money while taxes just seem to be going up and up.”
Mr Tehan said the opposition would continue its advocacy for action to be taken to alleviate the pressure on constituents, with his particular focus as Shadow Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction being on the cost of power bills.
“We’ll be doing a lot of advocacy in these spaces,” he said.
“I want to thank the community for pointing out to the government how important diesel is to those in the rural sector.
“I think they’ve realised how important that is now and they seem to be addressing it, but there is also a broader concern about what is happening with the price of energy.
“Sadly, the government’s $275 they promised would come out of power bills is non-existent.
“Now with all the transmission costs we’re likely to see an extra $600 put on our power bills over the coming years, which is catastrophic.”
Mr Tehan said the soaring cost of fuel made it clear Australia needed to shore up national supply.
“We’ve obviously got to get a change in the way the government is operating,” he said.
“We’ve also got to get the government to understand that we need to start drilling for oil again, we need to start exploring for gas again and, where we can, we need to start going after energy abundance again – so we need to be using coal, gas, renewables and I think we also need to be looking at nuclear.
“We need to be looking at all forms of energy because we have to learn to stand on our own two feet.
“If we can’t stand on our own two feet, given the geostrategic climate, then we’re fools.
“At the moment, we’re so reliant on overseas for all our energy, and becoming more so, and that’s not a good place for us to be at the moment.”