ALFA president Jim Cudmore says that "almost every representative body for farmers, service stations, motoring groups, fuel distributors, consumers, welfare groups, environmentalists, stock feed manufacturers, intensive livestock industries and even biofuels are opposed to ethanol mandates".

"With the Governments own public benefit test reporting no benefit from the mandate, we struggle to understand how the Queensland Government can justify the implementation of this distortionary legislation?" he said.

"The reasons why mandates are opposed are many and are essentially due to its large number of unintended negative consequences."

Mr Cudmore argued an ethanol mandate would lead to higher grain and food prices, job losses, higher fuel prices and commercialisation delays for superior second generation ethanol technologies.

"What few people realise is that ethanol has negligible environmental benefits (around 3-5pc) and is actually more expensive for consumers once unleaded petrol prices exceed $1 litre due to its lower energy

content," he said.

"Consumers are being hoodwinked into thinking that they are better off because of ethanol's lower price at the bowser, when the reality is they use more fuel for each kilometre travelled compared to regular unleaded.

"With at least 50pc of the proposed mandate being sourced from grain, future dry periods will also inevitably

lead to inflationary pressures on grain and food prices."