Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's with great pleasure that I rise to speak in favour of the amendments moved by the shadow minister in the cognate debate on the Fuel Security Bill 2021 and the Fuel Security (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 202 today. While there are welcome elements, indeed, in these particular bills, we shouldn't be under any illusion; these bills are the result of an ongoing government failure on fuel security. That's how we have come to be here right now. I would just like to remind the House that, while I said at the outset that these bills are welcome, this government has actually been responsible for overseeing half of Australia's remaining refineries close under its watch since this initial fuel security announcement was made back in last September. That's the lived reality here in Australia.

We are getting pretty used to seeing this, actually, from government, where everyone turns up for the announcement, everyone is there for the photo opportunity, but when you go to look for some follow-through, it's sadly lacking, and that is a pattern that is very clear and discernible for this government. Even if this package were to be implemented as predicted by the government, Australia will still be non-compliant with our International Energy Agency obligation to hold 90 days of oil reserves. This will mean that we would still be disproportionately impacted and disproportionately reliant on imports.

This critically important issue to my home town of Newcastle is recognition of the fact that Australia still lacks a strategic fleet. Nothing that this government is presenting to this House today or on any previous occasion does anything to remedy the fact that we, as an island nation, completely lack a strategic fleet. It leaves us utterly reliant upon a fleet of foreign owned and operated tankers. Australia does not own a single tanker anymore. All of the shipping up and down our coastlines is now in the hands of foreign owned and operated tankers. If that doesn't ring some alarm bells for this government, I don't know what does. Yet despite this government's claims—when they popped up the announcement last September for fuel security—that they are taking action to secure our long-term fuel supply, there is little to suggest that is in fact the case. As part of that announcement by the government there was an enticement of sorts, an effort not only to seek to secure fuel security and some of the jobs attached to it but to ensure that some money was allocated to make sure that new storage facilities could be built in Australia.

The port of Newcastle has a couple of applications in before the government. I was asked to go and visit the Stolthaven fuel storage facility in Newcastle, which is one of the applicants. Stolthaven are a leading independent provider of storage and distribution services for bulk liquid fuels. Their facility is a very important one in the port of Newcastle. It's a terminal that today has nine tanks, with a capacity of 130,700 cubic metres. They have development consent already for an additional 17 tanks to be installed, which would massively increase their capacity to store fuel. Those 17 tanks of diesel and motor gasoline would give an additional capacity of 224,650 cubic metres. That's nothing to be sneezed at. It is not a small increase by anybody's standards. It's development-application ready. They were asked to go through an expression-of-interest process, which they have done, as I know Park Fuels also have done. They have terrific access to a very deep water berth that would be adequate for LR2-capable vessels to be loaded from. So they've applied under this government's new fuel storage program for Australia. The application was submitted back on 15 June, and since then it's been crickets. Nothing has been said. Construction is actually meant to commence in July this year, which, according to my figures, is only a couple of weeks away, along with a recruitment process for workers in those facilities.

I really wanted to use this opportunity today to say that if you were serious about putting any substance behind otherwise hollow announcements about fuel security in this nation then you would hurry up. You would attach a sense of urgency to the selection of successful applicants under the fuel storage program and you would look seriously at the port of Newcastle as an absolutely essential location. The location not only has strategic importance through its connections with the RAAF base to the north of Newcastle, which has a very large civilian airport co-located with it, and a very deep water port, which is required in order to have big ships fully loaded with these fuels, but is a clear, logical choice for a nationally important fuel storage facility.

I urge the government to adopt some urgency on this matter, because it is a government that, to date, has quite a dismal record on following through on its announcements and on putting in place anything of substance that will lead to a secure, long-term fuel supply for this nation. Those opposite think that the announcements made back in September are going to create a thousand new jobs, but we have zero evidence of the delivery of anything at this point. We've seen nothing since that announcement.

The government has had a lot of private sector players—as I just noted, the case of Stolthaven in Newcastle—working tirelessly to put forward proposals. They could not have done their work better for them. Yet government is still so slow to respond, leaving those facilities still wondering what on earth this government's commitment really is to the region. It's only now that the government seeks to bring these bills before us. You've got a start date for construction on some of these facilities of 1 July. The government is cutting time superfine in trying to get bills passed with just a couple of weeks out.

It would be very good to see this government turn its mind to the ongoing issue of a lack of strategic fleet here in Australia. Newcastle would have been and remains an ideal location to have a permanent strategic fleet. The government recognises the strategic importance of Newcastle in so many ways yet fails to support the Port of Newcastle to develop and deliver its full potential. That is a shameful reflection on this government. This government's ideological opposition to ensuring that we have Australian flagged ships operating up and down Australian coastlines should be an issue of national security for this parliament but, no, this is a government that has undermined the Australian shipping industry and its workers at every opportunity possible.

We are left with the situation of being the largest island continent in this world having zero—we do not have a single one—fuel tankers, and the number of Australian flagged ships currently operating on our coastline is dwindling on a daily basis under this government's regime. This is all because the government fears organised labour. It's driven by such profound opposition to a properly organised workforce that insists on safe, secure work conditions. What we are left with are foreign owned vessels cruising up and down our coastlines, carrying critical cargoes and no assurances that workers on board those ships are treated adequately. There is no value-add to our nation in terms of being able to build on our own capacity here. It is a shameful act of neglect by this government, to continue undermining the Australian shipping industry in this nation.

I commend the opposition's amendments and ask that this government: (a) develop a sense of urgency about the work it has to undertake to ensure that there is a secure fuel supply in this nation, and (b) recognise the work and effort from so many fuel providers to take part in this bid for additional fuel storage in Australia. It should back in those companies, like Stolthaven and Park in the Port of Newcastle, and provide them with the kind of support that will be required to deliver on the government's intention of long-term fuel security for this nation.

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