The Hobart City Council is concerned that every time motorists fill up their tanks, they could be unknowingly funding Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds will write to the federal government, asking Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to close a loophole in the sanctions regime.
The move follows a motion brought by Councillor Ben Lohberger, which was passed at Monday’s council meeting.
Lohberger’s motion stated that Russian petroleum products are entering Australia through third-party countries despite strict sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“This issue is very relevant to this council, which expressed its support for the people of Ukraine and the Ukrainian community in Hobart in February 2022, but which also spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on petroleum products every year,” he wrote in the motion.
“Hobart residents and ratepayers spend many times more and none of us want to be contributing to the Russian war against Ukraine every time we fill our tank.”
The concern centres on what experts call the “refining loophole”, a gap that allows Russian crude oil to be processed in places like India and China, before being sold to Australia as if it were a product from those countries.
Recent data shows that in the first half of 2024, Australia imported more than 1.4 million tonnes of refined oil from overseas refineries that rely heavily on Russian crude.
Two Indian refineries, Jamnagar and New Mangalore, source 26% and 41% of their crude from Russia respectively.
The motion was supported by all councillors except Will Coats and Louise Elliot, who unsuccessfully attempted to move an amendment that the council include other international concerns in the letter.
Elliot suggested the council also call on the Prime Minister to fast-track the delivery of retired army tanks to Ukraine, urge Myanmar to end its civil war and even ask US President Donald Trump to rethink his tariffs.
“I actually must admit that I laughed out loud when I read this motion, because where is the line on what other letters we’ll be writing to the Prime Minister or whoever else about?” she said.
“If this letter had a chance of being 0.01% effective, I would support it, but … it’s going to do nothing. All it does is clog up the bureaucracy.”
