Nick Xenophon (SA, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Hansard source

I just have some further questions on this because this is important. If something goes wrong with our fuel supply—if there's a natural disaster or if some oil tankers can't make it to Australia for whatever reason—then that could have enormous consequences for our nation and enormous consequences for our economy, let alone the disruption it could cause to ordinary citizens and the impact it could have on our Defence Force. Are the 11 host countries—without necessarily naming them—in the Asia-Pacific region, in Europe, in Africa or in the Americas?

Secondly, the minister helpfully said that there's nothing to stop ticket contracts from being held here in Australia, but there is no market yet for them. Does that mean that we couldn't have our own supplies of fuel here in Australia, within our borders, because the market just isn't there or it would simply be too prohibitive in cost? I'm just concerned that we won't have much of a supply of fuel on the ground here in Australia in the event that we have a geopolitical event or a natural disaster that causes disruption to our fuel supplies.

Again I go back to the issue of force majeure. Is that something that the government has considered? In the event of an outbreak of conflict, does the government concede that a ticket contract of the type envisaged in this legislation cannot reasonably be enforceable by virtue of the principle of force majeure?