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

The very concerning events in the Middle East have led Australians, quite rightly, to ask about fuel security and how we're placed and have led to many questions about Australia's position. I'm pleased to tell the House and to inform Australians that we enter this period of great international instability very well prepared. In 2023, the Albanese government instituted the minimum stockholding obligation on Australia's refining companies. There had been no obligation before 2023 for Australia's refineries to hold minimum stocks. I can tell the House that in Australia currently we hold 1½ billion litres of petrol and three billion litres of diesel in our minimum stock obligation, which is in effect a strategic reserve, and those stocks are held in the electorates of Corio and Bonner, which is where we think they should be held—here in Australia, not in Texas or Louisiana. We think the minimum stock obligation, the strategic reserve for our country, should be held in our country. That is the approach of the Albanese Labor government, which was a change of policy in 2023 over that which we inherited.

In addition, I want to talk to Australia's truckies and to those who rely on Australian trucking and say we know how important AdBlue is for the importance of Australia's trucking industry. When we came to office, there was no stockpile of urea. I can tell the House that we now have a stockpile of five weeks worth of urea, 7½ thousand tonnes, which adds to the 12 weeks held by the private sector, which means we have substantial reserves when it comes to urea, which is necessary for trucking and for AdBlue, which is a very good thing indeed as well. In 2021, Australia's only producer of urea in Gibson Island announced its closure, and that meant we had no domestic sovereign capability. I'm also pleased to tell the House how much the government welcomes—they ask what we're doing about it—Perdaman's decision to develop a urea-manufacturing facility in the Burrup basin with the support of the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility. which is now under construction—sovereign capability in Australia for Australians. We've built a stockpile while we are waiting for that to happen. It's now being built under this government. That's what a future made in Australia looks like. That's what sovereign capability looks like.

The Albanese government can't guarantee that there won't be international instability. We can't guarantee that there won't be impacts on prices and there won't be impacts across the energy supply chain. But we can guarantee that we enter this crisis better prepared than ever before, with the highest fuel stocks in 15 years, rebuilding sovereign capability on things like urea, and with a country that is prepared for the worst the world can throw at us. That's the Albanese government's approach.

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