00:02Delivering water to properties in regional New South Wales, Dave Henry feels the pinch
00:08of rising fuel prices.
00:10Dave Henry, The last two to three weeks it's been noticeably going up and in the last week
00:14it's really started to bite.
00:16With diesel up to almost three dollars per litre, Dave has had to pass the cost onto
00:22his customers.
00:24Dave Henry, People with the drought conditions are already struggling to get from week to
00:28week and having to find a chunk of money to buy a load of water for some people is becoming
00:37increasingly difficult.
00:39In Southern Tasmania, Kate Gotoski has to drive a two hour round trip every day to get to work
00:46from her home.
00:48Kate Gotoski, We chose that for housing affordability which is sort of ironic now because we're
00:52really being punished with the cost of fuel these days.
00:56People living in regional Australia have to deal with long distance travel, making those
01:03communities especially vulnerable to fuel price increases.
01:07That leaves people in those areas with tough choices to make.
01:12Kate Gotoski, Already there's daily decisions about whether we do extra things as a family,
01:17what we're spending our money on.
01:20The Middle East conflict driving the price hikes has also highlighted kinks in Australia's
01:27fuel supply chain.
01:29Having a national volume of fuel in the country doesn't necessarily mean that that fuel can
01:34get from where it's stored around the coast in a lot of cases to where it's actually being
01:40used in rural and regional Australia.
01:41Ryan Taylor says the fuel crisis has made regional living harder.
01:47Ryan Taylor, I've got about an acre and a half of lawn to my, that uses a hell of a
01:50lot
01:50more fuel than a standard suburban backyard for instance.
01:55He feels lucky his farm isn't his primary source of income.
01:59Ryan Taylor, Fuel has pretty much erased any profit that we can get from this farm at the moment.
02:04Ryan Taylor, you have a very good place to getWinds here.
02:04Ryan Taylor, '' hopeful music''
