Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Treasurer, 30 per cent of Australia's fuel can be supplied from existing indigenous reserves, even without tapping oil shales. Why does government refuse to ban exports, which earn a measly $8 thousand million, whilst importing fuel, costing us $62 thousand million? Australia is one of the big four in grain and sugar production. Both are feedstock of ethanol. Why no action? Ethanol can, right now, supply three per cent of Australia's demand. Additionally, four of the recently closed refineries can easily be recommissioned. Why, on these three obvious initiatives, has the government done nothing?

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

Thanks to the member for Kennedy for his question. The government is working very hard to make sure that there is enough fuel reaching regional and other communities in our country, and a big part of that is making sure that we have the refining capacity that we need. I pay tribute to the work of the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, who, just on Friday in my neck of the woods, was making it easier for our local refineries to access the support that they need—the two remaining refineries, after the Leader of the Opposition waved another four of them goodbye when he was the energy minister. Locally produced fuel is a big part of the government's efforts to deal with the consequences of what we're seeing out of the Middle East.

We also recognise how important ethanol is to our domestic fuel supply. More than recognising that, we're investing in it. Once again, at the Lytton refinery, the energy minister and I announced $1.1 billion for our Cleaner Fuels Program, which is to invest in low-carbon liquid fuel production in Australia, consistent with the kinds of goals that the member for Kennedy has. That's on top of the $250 million in innovation funding under the Future Made in Australia Innovation Fund. He's right that we don't have a mandate, but the relevant departments and authorities have been working to see whether we could implement one in the future, making sure that we factor in things like safety and quality. Again, that's all about supporting our local fuels industry.

At times like this, when there's an extraordinary amount of global economic uncertainty—we know that the main driver of that is this oil shock coming out of the war in the Middle East—we're working on a whole range of fronts to address those challenges, and a big part of that are the efforts that we're all putting into our domestic industry.