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https://thedriven.io/2026/07/24/a-mining-campaign-dressed-in-an-akubra-the-hands-off-our-fuel-petition-is-not-about-farmers/>
"A tractor in a paddock isn’t using a public road.
Neither is a 400-tonne mining haul truck at the bottom of an open-cut pit.
Both burn diesel.
Only one of them is being used as the poster child for a campaign that is
really about protecting the other.
The National Farmers’ Federation is asking farmers and fishers to sign a
petition at handsoffourfuel.com.au to defend the Fuel Tax Credits Scheme
against being “cut, capped or removed.”
The framing is folksy and sympathetic: hard-working families on the land, boats
at sea, the honest principle that you shouldn’t pay a road tax for fuel you
don’t burn on a road.
Read the fine print on the website, though, and a different picture emerges.
The campaign is authorised by the Minerals Council of Australia. Industry
associations wanting to join the “alliance” are told to email the MCA. Oh and
the MCA claims ownership – the CEO is quoted: “we launched the Hands Off Our
Fuel campaign.”
This is not a farmers’ campaign that the miners happen to support. It is a
mining campaign wearing a farmer’s hat. Picture Matt Canavan in an akubra,
dusted head to toe in coal."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
