Impact on Council Operations

Published on 02 April 2026

As a regional area built on agriculture, industry and community, the people of the South Burnett are being affected more than ever by the current fuel crisis.

As a Council for the community, we are aware of the cost of living pressures that will unfortunately continue to increase in coming months and as a Council our operations are not immune, just like local businesses.

Council operations are continuing to experience direct cost increases due to rising fuel prices, along with ongoing supply chain challenges that are being monitored daily. It is expected the cost of goods and services will rise further.

“As a Council, we are going to do what we can to limit impacts by continuing to review projects to see whether they can be delayed or re-scoped. We will concentrate on essential services which may mean some things may have to wait a little longer. We will also look at reducing the travel costs of staff where we can,” said Mayor Kathy Duff.

South Burnett Regional Council supports the call from the Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) and Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) for Councils to be recognised as essential services and as a key partner in the response to fuel supply challenges.

Our region’s road networks suffered extensive damage in the March rainfall, just as we were making progress on repairs from previous years. It is important that we continue this work. Council is working to support local contractors that have been engaged for flood damage repairs as well as talking with the State Government on the impacts of fuel costs on these works to try to manage and where possible reduce financial impacts for our community.

We would like to thank our local fuel suppliers and service stations who continue to advocate for our region to ensure we keep businesses and the community moving. We would also like to thank the people of our community for not panic buying and looking out for others.

The impacts of the fuel crisis caused by the Middle East conflict will continue to evolve for people and businesses. As a Council, we will continue to advocate and work for the community every day.