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ACAPMA PETROLEUM INDUSTRY REPORT AN UNNECESSARY ABSENCE OF OPTIMISM Why all the doom and gloom? There are plenty of reasons to believe the Australian economy will recover strongly from crisis. It always has. By ACAPMA CEO Mark McKenzie. T he heading for this article may appear a little strange coming from the CEO of a national body representing the Australian fuel industry. But the Australian fuel industry comprises around 3,000 Australian businesses employing an estimated 70,000 Australians, all of whom have been impacted in one way or another by the combined effects of the recent bushfires, flood emergencies and the COVID-19 economic downturn. Accordingly, business owners and the people who work in our industry are grappling with the same uncertainty and anxiety about what the future holds in a post COVID-19 environment. With the urgency of the COVID-19 crisis now receding, the 24-hour news media has been filling the gaps left in their news broadcasts (as a result of fewer daily media briefings from political leaders and health professionals) with stories about the economic disaster that is ‘yet to come’. Very little mention is made of the fact Australia has largely triumphed through the crisis in both health and economic terms, relative to most other developed countries. The human harm caused by COVID-19, at least to date, is less than the typical harm caused by annual flu outbreaks. While our economy is forecast to contract by around five per cent in 2020, this contraction would be the fourth lowest of all OECD economies and below the world average of six per cent. This, of course, is not to diminish the fact that Australia was facing a genuine crisis. Nor is it intended to dismiss the fact that Australian businesses (of all sizes) have done it tough in recent times and will continue to for some time to come. But the fact remains that the strong leadership demonstrated by the Morrison government and supported by the National Cabinet, coupled with the cooperation of " If employer groups and unions can work together to address these challenges, then anything is possible." 52 CONVENIENCE WORLD JUL/AUG, 2020