KENNEDY MP Bob Katter wants the government to introduce an immediate 18-month suspension of the law which requires trucks and heavy vehicles to use Adblue to drive on the roads.
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Mr Katter has written to Transport Minister Catherine King and Science Minister Ed Husic after warnings of another AdBlue shortage which is made from urea.
AdBlue is used in modern diesel engines to control nitrogen oxide pollutants including in trucks, large passenger buses, mining equipment and agricultural vehicles.
AdBlue is a legal requirement for vehicles fitted with Selective Catalytic Reduction technology, and is used in trucks, buses, cars, vans, boats, excavators and tractors.
Following a shortage last year the government got Incitec Pivot to become the only manufacturer of urea in Australia at their Gibson Island plant but they have announced they will cease operating at the end of the year.
Mr Katter said urea was an ammonia nitrate natural gas and unless the Government can bring down the price of gas long term, it won't be a survivable industry.
"We have the highest priced natural gas in the world. No one is going to produce urea in Australia," Mr Katter said.
"With the free market and all its fang and claw, all our gas was swiftly sold off overseas for around 6c a unit. We Australians now buy it back at $16 a unit. Reserve Resource Policy will bring the price of gas down and make the industry profitable, long term."
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In the meantime he wants from relief from the rule that trucks must use Adblue.
"If the AdBlue dries up, the whole country will be in dire straits, not just the farmers or truckies. The Government must act to eliminate this utterly stupid piece of legislation," he said.
"But the Federal Government have no intention of doing anything about it because they are driven by ideology, and this overrides common sense," he said.
"The regulations must be removed for a least 18 months and in that time, we must return to Reserve Resource Policy like every other major western country. The world is not going to come to an end if that is done."
Mr Katter said that Reserve Resource Policy would solve the issue long term, but State Governments needed to also rubber stamp gas projects that are under development and release the gas immediately for domestic use to bring down costs in the short term.
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
