A note from Andrew Kay

South Australian Business News • Policy

Andrew Kay

Thursday, April 30th 2026

I’m taking the opportunity to use today’s Member Update for a couple of purposes. Firstly, as a brief update on the fuel situation, and secondly, as a reminder about the importance of the latest Survey of Business Expectations.

I won’t be putting out a separate fuel update this week, but I will be attending the regular weekly roundtable with Treasurer Koutsantonis tomorrow.

With fuel supplies in Australia currently in check at this time, our attention will turn to prices once more, with oil prices overnight hitting their highest level since the war began, reaching over $US120/barrel. In other news:

Prices rose on a Wall Street Journal report that President Trump had told aides to prepare for an extended blockade, and following a further signal from the US President that he would keep blockading the strait until Iran agreed a deal to end its nuclear program.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has said, “The Chinese Government is facilitating engagement with Australian businesses on jet fuel”. The comments came after a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

China had ceased exports of fuel to Australia soon after the Gulf conflict began.

Tourism Minister Don Farrell will today hold urgent discussions on the impact of the fuel crisis on the tourism business at a meeting of state tourism ministers. We know from business feedback that this sector was hit hard by a downturn during what should have been a peak school holiday period.
Fuel prices were a major driver of March inflation figures released yesterday, with the automotive fuel index up 32.8 per cent in the month and 24.2 per cent over the year. The ABS reported an overall increase in the inflation rate to 4.6 per cent, up from 3.7 per cent in February.

The latest Survey of Business Expectations is out, and you can find it here. It includes the same questions that we asked about the fuel situation a few weeks ago, so we can inform the government about what has changed in terms of business impact. This is critical data, and we know that cost pressures are hitting far more broadly than they were a month ago, so we need to capture this now.