Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for O'Connor for his question. As a proud farmer and regional member, he knows the importance of energy security for keeping the economy moving in his electorate and right across Australia. He knows that the truckies, the tradies, the farmers and the miners in places like Collie and the Goldfields absolutely rely on energy security and liquid fuel security to be able to do their jobs every day.

While Australia's fuel supplies have remained secure and affordable throughout the pandemic, we need to be vigilant in the event of the worst-case scenarios that might come upon us. Our fuel security package is focused on dealing with exactly that. It has a number of components. The first is a minimum stock obligation, which will require a 40 per cent increase in diesel stock holdings onshore here in Australia. We're investing, of course, in onshore diesel storage to make sure that there are storages there for that additional diesel holding. But we've also locked in the future of our refineries—the refinery in Geelong and the refinery in Brisbane. Those refineries are not just secured for the future; they're secured for investment to make our fuel cleaner. That's all part of the package—

Mr Thistlethwaite interjecting—

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