BIC National e-Bulletin – February 2022

The BIC has officially reopened our doors for what will be an interesting 2022. In May this year, Australians will vote for the 47th parliament of Australia. The BIC commenced our election campaign late last year and will continue discussions with all major parties in the coming months. The Omicron wave has delivered much woe around the country and has left many people fearful and covid-weary. Many states/territories are yet to fully bounce-back to the ‘new normal modus operandi’, let alone WA with its continued hard border closure. Waying it all up, we felt that it was best to postpone the planned Bus Industry Summit to June. You

can stay up to date with industry events and meetings on our moving people website. Throughout January, our LinkedIn became the AdBlue hub for industry. An update on AdBlue is provided in this bulletin.

The BIC has also locked and loaded an interactive key dates calendar for national and international conferences, expos, summits and seminars.

Since 31 Jan, a protest camp (500 metres from BIC’s home in the Parliamentary triangle in Canberra) of ‘anti-vaxxers’ has been calling for the resignation of Australia’s political leaders. Canberra has also seen Invasion Day marches the week prior and celebrated the 60th anniversary of the longest protest in global history – the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. COP26 saw nation-wide protesting on climate change in November last year. There is no doubt that the ‘voter’s campaign’ is in full swing and the closer we get to the federal election, we may continue to see week to week shifts in the topic of the day.

We think that Australia’s balance sheet, vaccine mandates, Covid management and lack of skilled workers are going to be at the centre of this federal election. We don’t expect climate
change to be the headline act as it was for the 2019 election – but the majors will all have some form of policy to take to the election.

The BIC commenced our election campaign late last year meeting with the Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce (Minister for Transport) and Senator Bridget McKenzie (Minister for Regionalisation).
On Feb 8, the BIC will meet with the federal opposition leader Anthony Albanese at a private dinner. The Australian parliament is set to meet for 2 weeks in February and again in March. And although parliament house remains closed for face to face engagement, the BIC will be taking our industry business to ministers and shadow ministers by way of nearby cafes or online.

The Morrison government will deliver its budget on March 29 – should be an interesting watch – particularly in light of the Omicron wave which has affected much of the country with supply chain issues, staff shortages and low consumer confidence. Morrison’s mid-year economic outlook (delivered in December last year) projected a stronger-than-expected outlook but it is our bet that the average punter out there will be looking at how smartly the borrowed money has been
spent and the guru-plan to reduce the deficit.  

On Jan 28, the BIC submitted a pre-budget funding report to the Australian Treasury. In our pre-budget submission, we provided key funding recommendations to support net zero heavy vehicle safety and the necessary skilled and resilient workforce we need (so many in industry are suffering from lack of access to skilled workers). Our submission also called for funding a tourism campaign to support land transport tourism.

BIC’s pre-budget submission to the Australian Treasury can be downloaded from the moving people website.

The latest on AdBlue supply in Australia

December and January seem to have been marked by crisis – the rampaging Omicron outbreak, the collapse of the PCR covid testing system, the scarcity of RATs, floods and storms.  Another crisis was the rapidly dwindling supply of AdBlue following an international shortage of refined urea, a key ingredient used in the diesel exhaust fluid. Multiple producers of urea across the globe have either shut down, were undertaking maintenance, or were directed by their governments to focus on domestic markets. 

While the AdBlue crisis caught the Australian
government unaware it did eventually coordinate a response via its National Coordination Mechanisms (Emergency Management – Dept of Home Affairs).  The bus and coach industry was represented by the BIC secretariat on the NCM. The BIC provided advice to a number of government agencies including the Departments of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Foreign Affairs, Industry, and the Dept of Infrastructure and Transport.

While the NCM was predominantly focussed on ensuring AdBlue supplies along the key trucking routes, the BIC Secretariat got busy securing priority supply for the bus industry from an AdBlue importer. We fast-tracked government clearance and the stock was ready to go – what we couldn’t do however was control the cost of shipping which made the landing cost prohibitive to Australian buyers. 

Luckily Incitec Pivot Ltd – a domestic manufacturer has been able to ramp up domestic production of AdBlue by around 800 per cent producing over 3 million litres of AdBlue a week – the equivalent of approximately 75 per cent of Australia’s AdBlue needs.  Supplies are now being distributed across the country and you should be able to find some near you. Intensive efforts are also underway to stock up retail units of AdBlue (e.g. 1lt,
3.5lt 10lt and 20lt containers) but it will take some weeks before these packaged goods are restocked at all sites.

Your best way to stay up to date is via our Linkedin page https://www.linkedin.com/company/bus-industry-confederation