Editorial standards

Every quantitative claim on FuelCrisis.com.au is either traceable to a named primary source or explicitly labelled as derived or editorial through its provenance badge. Figures carry a badge and a source line on the page, and the methodology data-sources table is the single home for each feed's primary source and link. We do not yet attach a per-figure inline citation with an access date to every number; where a figure and its source could reasonably diverge, the methodology entry records the review date instead. Acceptable primary sources include government agencies (federal, state, statistical), central banks, Treasury, the International Energy Agency, the US Energy Information Administration, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the Department of Climate Change Energy the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), the Australian Energy Market Operator, the Australian Institute of Petroleum, S&P Platts, FRED, the Bank for International Settlements, the International Monetary Fund, and listed-entity disclosures.

Secondary corroboration from major Australian news mastheads is acceptable when no primary source exists. Where we derive a figure from an upstream feed (for example Singapore Mogas 92 from AIP wholesale plus live AUD/USD), the derivation is published on /methodology with the formula and the inputs, and the result carries a derived-data Provenance Badge.

• YouTube channels, commentator blogs, advocacy-group publications.
• Wikipedia as a primary source. Wikipedia is acceptable only as a navigation aid to the primary source it cites.
• Any source that cannot be independently re-verified by a third party.
• Press releases that cannot be cross-checked against an underlying disclosure or filing.

If a Gary Stevenson explainer or any other commentator's framing shapes how we translate a number, the citation on the page is to the primary data (ACCC or RBA or DCCEEW), not to him. The site is a primary-source aggregator, not a commentator network.

This site is published by Modero. It exists to report accurately on Australia's fuel security posture and its cost-of-living consequences for households, drivers and small businesses. Its funding model is designed to keep editorial independence intact. This policy says, in plain English, how we do that.

Funding sources we do not accept

We do not accept money, sponsorship, or in-kind contributions of any material value from the following categories. This includes advertising, sponsored content, event funding, data licensing, research partnerships and consulting fees.

• Oil and gas majors (upstream producers and integrated companies).
• Oil refiners operating anywhere in the world.
• Fuel retailers including service station chains and convenience networks.
• Upstream exploration companies.
• Oilfield services and equipment suppliers.
• Fossil-aligned advocacy groups, trade associations primarily representing the above, and political campaigns funded by the above.

We do not accept money from any entity whose business is measurably helped or harmed by how we report the fuel market. If we are unsure, we exclude. This is a hard rule, not a preference. Our editorial defensibility depends on it. We would rather be smaller and cited than larger and discounted.

Our funding model is disclosed affiliate placements. An affiliate placement appears only where a relationship is active and disclosed; until then the relevant links are simply not shown. The licensing, subscription, and sponsorship channels below are the funding model we are building toward, not yet operating; they are set out here so the policy is fixed before any money changes hands.

• Disclosed affiliate placements in categories adjacent to household and motoring cost management. The kinds of partner we accept are illustrative, not a closed list: car insurance comparison, roadside assistance and motoring clubs, solar quote referrals, electric vehicle quote aggregators, electricity retailers on renewable plans, novated lease providers (AFCA members only), and fuel or fleet cards that help drivers spend less. Any partner in an adjacent household-cost category can be accepted where it clears the exclusions above. Every affiliate relationship is declared, every outbound affiliate link carries rel="sponsored", and the disclosure renders beside the linked content.
• Business-to-business licensing (planned) of our data and widgets to buyers outside the excluded categories above. We do not license data commercially yet; when we do, the acceptable-use clause on any future /api or /licensing page will exclude oil majors, refiners, fuel retailers, upstream explorers, oilfield services and fossil-aligned advocacy from purchasing a commercial licence, enforced at onboarding and at renewal.
• Paid subscriptions (planned) by individual readers and institutional analysts. There is no subscription product yet; if one is introduced, payments would be processed through Stripe, subscriber data held under our privacy statement, and editorial content would not be edited to please subscribers.
• Disclosed editorial sponsorship (planned) by sponsors outside the excluded categories above, where the sponsor does not influence editorial content, the sponsored content is visibly labelled, and the disclosure renders within 64 pixels of the sponsored block. Sponsorship is only considered from Q4 2026 onward and each deal above A$5,000 requires explicit owner sign-off against this policy.

• Our monetisation layout and disclosure standards do not change during crisis or calm periods. Our editorial register may escalate on published triggers; our commercial posture does not.
• Sponsors, advertisers, affiliate partners and licensees do not review or approve editorial content before it is published. Ever. If a sponsor expects this, they are not a sponsor we can work with.
• We do not accept gifts, travel, hospitality or speaking honoraria from any party in the excluded categories above, or from any party whose business interests are materially affected by our coverage.
• Every editorial correction is dated, retained, and linked from the page where the error lived. A correction does not delete the history; it annotates it.

Affiliate links carry a visible "Affiliate link" label alongside the linked content. Outbound affiliate URLs include rel="sponsored noopener noreferrer" and open in a new tab. The list of categories we work with is in the section above.

Sponsored content, when active, is labelled "Sponsored" in the same colour weight as the surrounding editorial. Sponsored layouts do not borrow editorial framing or typography. The sponsorship policy reviews every active sponsor against this page's excluded-category list at renewal.

Every correction we make is dated, retained, and published on the corrections log. The page where the error originally appeared is annotated with a link to the correction. We do not silently re-publish a corrected page; the history is part of the record.

To report a correction, email info@fuelcrisis.com.au with the page, the section, the error, and the evidence. We acknowledge within 2 business days and respond substantively within 10 business days.

If you believe we have breached this policy, email info@fuelcrisis.com.au with the specific page, the suspected conflict, and the evidence. We will acknowledge within 2 business days and respond substantively within 10 business days.

If the challenge is upheld, the correction is published on the corrections log, the affected editorial surface is annotated, and, where relevant, the commercial relationship is terminated.

This policy and every active commercial relationship are reviewed quarterly against the conflict-of-interest rules above. The quarterly compliance review checks each affiliate, licensee, sponsor and subscription processor against the excluded-category list and the disclosure rules; any relationship that no longer fits is wound down and a corrections entry is published. The full policy receives a deeper annual review by the owner, and at any point a partner relationship is renewed.

Material changes are dated and retained on the corrections log. The policy version in effect on any given day is the version visible at the top of this page.