Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

I want to commend the member for the point of order. It's a reasonable point of clarification. Those figures only include fuel in Australia or on ships in our economic zone. Only that is what is included. Not ships that are some way away, whether they be in the Middle East or Singapore or the Gulf of Mexico. It is fuel in our exclusive economic zone. It is true that it is not all on land in Australia. My advice is that it does include fuel that is on the way to Australia, that is in our economic zone.

We believe it's appropriate, that's why we introduced minimum holding stocks. This was work that was not conducted by the previous government. The previous government saw four out of six petroleum refineries close when they were in charge—four out of six close. The two that we inherited are still in operation. That is not because of an accident; it's because of government and industry working together. We believe this is appropriate because what is required is to have stocks on hand for circumstances that are unpredictable globally and internationally.

As I said, the previous arrangement was that these stocks would be held overseas. In fact, I can refer the House to a press release from 8 March 2020 headed 'Visit to the United States of America'. It says:

Minister Taylor will hold bilateral discussions with US Energy Secretary … and sign a landmark arrangement with the United States that will allow Australia to access crude oil that is held in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve during an emergency.

The giveaway is in the name—the US strategic reserve. We believe in a strategic reserve that is Australian and in Australia. It provides a greater level of convenient access if the soil is closer to where you are, not in the United States. Call us old-fashioned, but we believe that's a better approach—that is, to have that fuel either in Australia or on the way to Australia.

The member for New England raised a legitimate question, and my answer includes fuel that is on the way to Australia as we speak as well as fuel that is in Australia. That is a good thing. We think that is a better arrangement than the one we inherited.

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