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

I thank my honourable friend for the question. In the face of the largest energy crisis in the history of the world and in the face of one of our major refineries catching on fire at a very untimely development, I can report to the House that Australia has substantially more fuel today than we did on the day Iran was bombed. In fact, in relation to diesel, which the agriculture sector and regional Australia relies on so much, I'm pleased to tell the House that, at 38 days' worth of holdings, it is the highest holding Australia has had since the minimum stock obligation came into force in 2023. We have 43 days' worth of diesel and 31 days' worth of jet fuel. In fact, over the last seven weeks, we—the government and industry working together—have added a billion litres of extra stockholding, which, by way of comparison, is as much as the opposition has promised to add between now and 2030. That's what we've added over the last seven weeks, working with industry and working with refiners to ensure that we are fuel secure in the most difficult circumstances possible. In relation to Export Finance Australia, we've underwritten 800 million litres of extra supply to Australia to provide us with a buffer.

This is the approach the Albanese government has taken. In the face of all the world has thrown at us, Australians working to ensure that they use only the fuel they need and the government working with industry to ensure that we have extra supplies have seen Australia better placed than most countries. But we know that there's more to do. That's why the budget delivered by the Treasurer just a couple of weeks ago invested substantially in fuel security, because we believe that, if you're going to improve our strategic reserves, if you're going to improve our sovereignty, then it makes sense to have a sovereign strategic reserve held by the people for the people—a government owned reserve to ensure that we are better placed in the future. Most members of the International Energy Agency have a government owned reserve. Australia has been the exception.

This is a point of difference. This is a policy of the government opposed by those who do not think we should have a strategic government owned reserve. The honourable member asked me how our approach compares with previous approaches. We believe in a reserve held in our country for our country, not a reserve held for Australia in Texas, which was the situation we inherited. We believe in a government owned reserve to ensure that we are well placed, which is a position opposed by those opposite. These are the approaches that the Albanese government—

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