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

I thank the honourable the Leader of the Nationals for the question. For those farmers and for the other farmers who are experiencing difficulties getting diesel, I can say this very clearly. The difficulties you are experiencing are not currently as a result of a lack of fuel coming to our country. We have received supplies in recent days as we would expect to. Obviously we keep a close eye, with the industry, on what ships are on their way to Australia, and those ships are continuing to arrive. That's the point we are making—fundamentally, Australia's fuel security is strong. That is why there is no need for people to panic buy or to order 100 or 200 per cent of what they normally order, which is what the service stations association told us was happening across the country.

The honourable member asked when they can expect fuel supplies. The answer to that is we will continue to work with the industry—with all industries—to ensure that these pressures on the fuel supply are dealt with as quickly and as expeditiously as possible. I say very clearly to the Leader of the Nationals that, if he has a good-faith idea he wants to put forward, he is welcome to and I will listen to it. The only idea we've heard so far from the opposition is that I should require more reporting from service stations. That is it; they want a very earnest report.

I've already indicated that I have issued an instruction that the MSO should now be updated weekly, not quarterly. And reporting is important. The Petroleum and Other Fuels Reporting Act 2017 has been in operation since then. I did require more reporting when we came to office in 2022, and if there is more sensible reporting that actually helps, then I'll do that as well.

But I'll also weigh that against a burden of compliance on service stations. I would have thought the party opposite would want me to weigh that up and say: 'Is there extra reporting that we might ask service stations and small distributors to undertake? Is that a helpful addition to the information?' I'll weigh that up against the reporting burden for small and medium-sized businesses.

See this speech in context