Thursday, 24 September 2026

 Richard RIORDAN (Polwarth) (18:46): (1859) I take great delight in making one of the final contributions for the 60th season. The adjournment I have this evening is for the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, and the action I seek is for the minister’s immediate intervention into the terrible dispute that is occurring as we speak in the wonderful coastal Great Ocean Road hamlet of Lorne. The action I seek is that the tourism minister immediately intervene in the dispute between the local proprietor and Viva Energy, who is refusing to upgrade the fuel storage services at the only service station in Lorne, representing the only service station on the south side of the Erskine River. Viva will not organise the replacement of the tanks or the repair of the tanks to ensure adequate fuel storage in Lorne. This is a huge problem. We saw only earlier this year floods and fires in the Otways. If the fuel supply is not available in Lorne, this will leave a huge problem not only for emergency service vehicles but also for people coming down. Only a few hours ago the Lorne service station ran out of fuel on the Thursday before a long weekend. There is simply not the storage capacity in the town unless the urgent repairs that can still be done before Christmas are done.

Without fuel on the Great Ocean Road, we are putting our emergency services at risk, we are putting our local communities at risk, we are putting tourism – the valuable tourist dollar on the Great Ocean Road – at risk if people who travel down to the Great Ocean Road cannot get fuel to get home again. It is a simple fix. For a company like Viva Energy, it is a drop in the ocean to fix this up. They are just being difficult, playing hard, and they are putting a whole coastal community and an entire regional tourism industry at risk. The proprietors – the current lessees – John and Kylie Blazely have been running that service station successfully for a very long time. They employ eight people, and this business cannot afford to be closed. It cannot afford to run out of fuel. It is a tourism issue as much as anything. I plead with the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment to do what she can do in the dying days of this government to put pressure on Viva Energy to ensure that adequate fuel supplies will be available to the Lorne locals, the Great Ocean Road, the tourism industry and, most importantly, emergency services over the coming fire danger period.