Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Industry and Sovereign Capability) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. When was the minister advised that six shipments of vital fuel supply bound for Australia were cancelled? How many ships have been cancelled to date?

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

I thank the honourable member for his question. As the government has made crystal clear in recent days and weeks, every expected delivery of fuel has arrived on schedule to this point. We have also made crystal clear at every opportunity that there has been uncertainty from mid to late April onwards. That's been consistent. That has been consistent in every single statement we've made.

As the Prime Minister has indicated, we're in constant contact: I have spoken to the chief executives of Ampol and Viva every day, in effect, and sometimes several times a day—

The chief executives of the two refineries in Australia have been advising me of the uncertainty from mid-April onwards. They have also advised me more recently of the six cancellations—which is still the current number—and several of those have been replaced with new sources, as I said very transparently on Insiders yesterday and hid away in an interview on the ABC. Six out of the 81 expected deliveries over that time have been cancelled or deferred and have now, at least to some degree, been replaced with new supply.

Zhi Soon (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. How is the Middle East conflict impacting global energy and fuel supply chains? What actions has the government taken to ensure Australia is prepared?

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

I thank my honourable friend for the question. Whether it is liquid fuels in petrol or diesel, or in electricity, we enter this international crisis, which the visiting chief executive of the International Energy Agency has said is the worst we have ever faced today, better prepared than ever before. We certainly have that as the case when it comes to liquid fuels. On Saturday, we updated our supply figures to show that there are 38 days worth of petrol and 30 days worth of diesel and jet fuel in Australia, as we speak—held in Australia, where the Australian strategic reserve should be.

So we were able to release some of that in relation to diesel and petrol on the condition that it flows to regional Australia. And more than 500 million litres is flowing to regional Australia as we speak—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister will pause. The member for Lyne has injected 14 times in 10 minutes. That is completely unacceptable. We had a lot of interjections during the last fortnight. I'm giving everyone fair warning right now: it is not going to be the same as happened last fortnight, so the member for Lyne will remove herself from the chamber for continual interjecting. It's just not the way this House will be conducted with me as Speaker.

The member for Lyne then left the chamber.

When the House comes to order, when the Leader of the Opposition ceases interjecting or responding, when everyone ceases interjecting—

Honourable members interjecting—

Order! When the House comes to order and only when the House comes to order, the minister is going to be heard. The minister will continue.

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

Thank you, Mr Speaker. We've been able to release 20 per cent of that, as I said, and we could release it because it's in Australia. Until 2023, that was not the case. If we'd had to release it from Texas on 28 February, it still wouldn't be here today, because it takes about 30 days to get from Texas to Australia. Under previous administrations, the only release we could have had was the then energy minister saying, 'Houston, we have a problem.' That was the only energy security plan we had, not just when it just came to liquid fuel but also electricity. The honourable member for Banks would be pleased with the release of the draft default market offer, which shows his constituents get a 4.6 per cent reduction in energy prices and small businesses 10.1 per cent under the draft default market offer, which has been released publicly—not hidden from the Australian people but released for all to see.

Also, I am pleased that we are better prepared for this crisis because we are saving more renewable energy for the night through the day and that reduces our reliance on gas. In the last summer of the previous government, we used 2.7 terawatt hours worth of gas. In this summer just gone, we used 1.5 terawatt hours, a very big reduction in gas use, which means we are less exposed to gas prices and that is in no small part due to home batteries. I am pleased to tell the House that since 1 July we have installed 286,831 home batteries and 1,987 of those have been in the electorate of Banks. Also, for those Australians who have not been able to access those, the member for Banks and I the other week launched the Padstow community battery, which will enable access to renewable energy to 10,000 houses in his electorate—10,000 houses for the Padstow community battery. Now, all this not only leads to reduced energy prices and lower emissions but also increased sovereign capability when it comes to energy. Because the sun does not need to go through the Straits of Hormuz and Vladimir Putin cannot interrupt the wind in Australia, it makes our energy system more resilient, more reliable, more sovereign. We on this side of the House think that's a good thing.