Anthony Albanese announces interest-free loans for Australian truckies, fuel suppliers amid Middle East war fuel crisis

Truckies, fuel suppliers and fertiliser producers will be among businesses able to get interest-free loans from the federal government to lessen the impact of the war in the Middle East.

In an address to the National Press Club on Thursday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will announce that businesses affected by the fuel supply crisis can access the low-cost loans within a fortnight.

The loans will be distributed as part of the government’s existing $1 billion economic resilience program in the National Reconstruction Fund.

Mr Albanese will say the loans will be critical to getting not just the businesses, but the wider economy, through the crisis caused by the fuel shocks.

“No government can promise to eliminate the pressures this crisis will impose, but we will be a buffer against the worst of it, a shock absorber in a time of global shocks,” he will say.

“We will do everything we can to protect the Australian people from what the world throws at us.”

The speech will be delivered a day after the prime minister gave an address to the nation across all TV and radio platforms about steps taken to lessen the impacts of the fuel crisis.

It is expected to detail Australia’s stance on the Middle East conflict and fuel security measures, while also emphasising economic sovereignty and securing global supply chains.

“Providing this stability and security amidst uncertainty does not mean standing still while the world changes around us. It means anticipating and creating change, true to Australian values and in Australia’s interests,” he will say.

“If people feel like the economy is not working for them, if they’re putting in the effort but not seeing the reward, if planning for the future feels like a luxury, then government cannot provide stability, just by keeping things as they are.

“There is not security in maintaining a status quo that doesn’t work for people.”

The situation in the Middle East and the inflationary challenges it has caused will cast a shadow over May’s federal budget, as the fallout from spikes in petrol prices continue.

The prime minister will say a balance will need to be struck in the budget between making the country more resilient, as well as providing cost-of-living relief.

“It is our government’s most important budget to date, and it will be our most ambitious. It has to be,” he will say.

“The scale of the challenge facing us, and the breadth of opportunities ahead of us, demand that ambition and that urgency.”