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

I thank the honourable member for the question and the spirit in which he raises it, on behalf of his electorate and in the national interest. The honourable member is right. There are a range of bunker fuels used in domestic and international shipping. Marine fuel is one of the most significant, along with marine diesel. Fuel oil accounted for one per cent of Australia's refined product use in 2025. I do know that the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government is engaging directly with the maritime sector, and I can tell the member for Clark that I've also engaged directly with the Tasmanian minister for energy and renewables, and we are working well together.

I can also tell the honourable member that, as part of the release of the Minimum Stockholding Obligation, although the member is right that bunker fuel is not in the Minimum Stockholding Obligation, we were nevertheless able to make a condition of the release of the Minimum Stockholding Obligation, prioritising maritime oil supply for cargo and passenger vessels to Tasmania, ports, fisheries and forestry. That has been done as part of the MSO release. I can also tell the member for Clark that approximately 13 per cent of the production from Geelong is for fuel oil, and last year total fuel oil production in Australia averaged 23 million litres a month, with the production of fuel oil supported by the announcement I just referred to that we made on Friday of support for our two refineries to ensure that Australian domestic capability.

In relation to the honourable member's question about the Liquid Fuel Emergency Act, I've pointed out before that the test for invoking that act is very high, quite rightly. It has never been invoked in the last 40 years—not through the two gulf crises, not through COVID and not at any other time.Of course, it is there to be invoked if necessary, but at this point I am not envisaging requiring that. Indeed, the measures that I refer to show what can be done without invoking that act.

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