Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. With the war in the Middle East impacting global supply chains, how is the Albanese Labor government taking further action to strengthen Australia's fuel security?

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 and for the wonderful work she does for the people of Macquarie on so many levels. On Saturday, as I do on every Saturday now, I released the minimum stockholding obligation updated figures so the Australian people can see how much petrol, diesel and jet fuel we have in Australia. Those figures show 39 days' worth of petrol at 1.6 billion litres, 30 days of diesel at 2.7 billion litres and 30 days of jet fuel at about 800 million litres. What that tells me is that although our refiners and our importers are delivering fuel to regional Australia in particular at record levels, the fuel also continues to arrive in Australia and be refined in Australia. Viva, for example, which is the refinery in Geelong has advised me today that their deliveries to regional Australia in the last week are 55 per cent higher than normal. That's a good thing. They are prioritising deliveries direct to distributors who go to farmers and who go to those who are involved in agriculture, and that's a good thing. There's a lot more work to do.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order!

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

I would have thought members opposite would welcome 55 per cent higher deliveries to regional Australia, for example.

But we know that there's more to do. Last week several companies raised with me the fact that the volatility in the oil market was getting worse, that purchasing spot cargoes was getting riskier and that they were finding those transactions increasingly hard. So the government very quickly worked through those issues last week, and on Saturday the Prime Minister and I announced a major intervention to put Export Finance Australia to work to enable them to finance and to work with importers to ensure they can get those cargoes, those spot cargoes that are available in the world—they are available. We want them to come to Australia for Australians. Export Finance Australia will be able to enter into insurance, hedging, loans, guarantees and direct purchases, whatever it takes, to work with those companies to get those types of fuel into Australia—but not just fuel. The legislation which I introduced into the House today makes clear it is also available for any good that is suffering under supply chain disruptions, and the government make it clear we regard fertiliser as a key priority there, and I thank the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry for all her work there with the sector.

This is being ahead of the curve to make sure that we are helping companies before the problems arise. The companies told us that they were finding this increasingly difficult, so we announced the legislation on Saturday, introduced it on Monday and will seek to pass it this evening, and we'll seek to pass it through the Senate tomorrow, so Australia's importers are able to get that fuel—that fuel that is available around the world—for Australians in good time, in good order, so we can ensure that our fuel supply remains as secure as it can be.