LIVE sheep trade lobby group Keep the Sheep has broadened its scope to mount a campaign and petition to apply political pressure on regional fuel supplies.

The ‘Fuel the Bush. Feed Australia’ petition was signed by more than 3000 people within 24 hours of the campaign being launched on Tuesday this week and has received 3686 signatures by this afternoon.

A statement from KTS spokesman Ben Sutherland said servos across rural communities are running out of diesel.

“Farmers are rationing fuel. Truckies are walking off runs they’ve done for generations. And it’s spreading.

“If this keeps going, the harvest stops. The trucks stop,” he said.

“The food chain breaks.

“So we’re stepping up.”

Mr Sutherland said Keep the Sheep is launching the Fuel the Bush campaign and petition to force the Albanese Government to guarantee fuel security for rural Australia before the current situation turns into a food crisis that cities can’t ignore.

“Because it’s all connected.

“The same bureaucrats in Canberra who shut down live exports are the same ones leaving rural communities to run dry,” Mr Sutherland said in a statement.

“The same people who don’t understand farming don’t understand why diesel matters.

“We’re not letting them get away with it,” he said.

The campaign is calling on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to prioritise fuel supply for agriculture as a critical industry, guarantee fuel deliveries to rural communities, fast-track Australian refining, and ensure fertiliser is sourced from additional avenues.

“This is the start.

“We need to show Canberra that rural Australia is watching, and that we’ve got the numbers to back it up,” Mr Sutherland said.