Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks to the honourable member for his question. For as long as I've known the member for Kennedy, or known of the member for Kennedy, he has had an interest in fuel security and particularly biofuels, so I want to acknowledge that at the outset.

I also want to assure him that we're not waiting for the next budget to take action on fuel security. The government's taken a number of important steps, including when it comes to our Cleaner Fuels Program, to address some of the issues that he raises in his question. Just today, as we've said in earlier answers, we've taken some additional important steps to address fuel security, particularly in regional areas. We do acknowledge that even though there is certainly enough fuel overall, there's pressure in some areas, so we're working closely with industry, the regulators and others to make sure that where there's pressure on supply chains, we're working as hard as we can to address them.

Just today, we're doubling the penalties for retailers doing the wrong thing and others doing the wrong thing. We've got the fuel price monitoring being ramped up for price spikes. We're working with industry to increase fuel supply to service stations, including—

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