Strategic shipping fleet key to national security

Ross Illingworth

Kingfisher Capital Partners

Melbourne, Vic 

Australian Financial Review
OPINION
27 October 2025

The Maritime Union of Australia welcomes Ross Illingworth’s clear-eyed assessment of Australia’s fuel insecurity (‘‘Fuel supply would cause a financial heart attack’’, Letters, October 20) and fully endorses his call for urgent national action, including the swift implementation of the strategic Australian shipping fleet program.

With just 21 to 25 days of refined fuel in reserve, Australia remains dangerously exposed to global disruptions.

More than 80 per cent of our fuel arrives by sea on foreign-flagged vessels, meaning that any geopolitical shock, supply chain breakdown or regional conflict could put our social and economic infrastructure in an immediate and lengthy paralysis.

The perilous state of our fuel security has increasingly placed the country in a position of enormous risk. Without bulk liquid fuels, either refined or in crude state, our national food supply, transport, mining, defence sectors and emergency services would grind to a halt.

This is why the establishment of an Australian strategic fleet with Australian-flagged and crewed vessels, capable of securing essential imports during crises and available to be requisitioned by the government when necessary, is essential to national resilience.

Fuel security is national security. The federal government should implement the strategic fleet proposal without further delay.