Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about blood oil. Twenty years ago Australians were horrified to learn that the diamond in their engagement ring could be a blood diamond. Blood diamonds, also known as conflict diamonds, are used to fund rebel groups and wars in Africa. Today, Australians will also be horrified to learn that the petrol they are putting in their cars may be from blood oil—that is, Russian oil that makes its way to Australia through a third party.

Russia pays for their military build-up and attacks on Ukraine from its fuel exports. Countries which buy oil products refined from Russian crude oil are enabling this ongoing invasion. The biggest buyer of Russian blood oil refined by India is—yep, you guessed it—Australia. The government talks tough, telling us it is imposing sanctions on Russia. Those sanctions include an embargo and price caps on Russian oil products. The government boasts about measures it is taking to put costs on Russia for its illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine. But underneath all the tough talk is a loophole Australia is exploiting. You guessed it: we can keep buying Russian blood oil.

Australia and Australian companies are prohibited from buying or importing oil or refined petroleum products from Russia. The loophole is that Australia and Australian companies are importing Russian oil products which are refined from Russian crude oil in India. The oil products we are buying include diesel, gasoline, gas oil and jet fuel. Basically, we avoid the sanctions to get the blood oil through the back door.

When we cut through all the spin about being tough on Russia, the truth is that Australian laws do not prohibit the import of laundered blood oil. India buys the crude on the cheap from Russia, refines it and then sells it on to us. The big winners are Russia and India. The losers in this greasy little transaction are the people of Ukraine. Russia's invasion of Ukraine is illegal and it's absolutely immoral. But isn't enabling the invasion equally immoral? Laundering this blood oil through a third country doesn't make it any less grubby.

Speaking of grubby, the question is how much are the importers of oil products making from this, and exactly how transparent are the likes of BP, ExxonMobil and Ampol when it comes to their supply chains? I reckon they're about as transparent and slippery as the Russian crude oil itself. Our Russian sanctions regime applies to Australian registered companies, but companies can get a permit to avoid the sanctions—how's that? The vague rules on permits, along with the Indian loophole, allow these companies to say, 'Look; no Russian oil on my hands,' when in fact they're up to their elbows in grease.

To rub oil into the wound, the amount we are giving Russia to wage war is twice what we are giving Ukraine to defend itself. Of course fuel security is critical for Australia, but at what price? And can we have fuel security without relying on Russian blood oil?

The answer is we don't need to rely on blood oil. We can ban all imports from Indian refineries without any significant inflationary or supply pressure here. In 2024, our imports of diesel from the Indian refineries were only 20 per cent of the total imports. Since the 2023 invasion we have imported about $3.7 billion of Russian crude in oil products from these refineries. That has put $1.8 billion in tax revenue in Putin's pocket. Stopping imports of oil products from these refineries would give Putin a punch in the financial nose, but our imports of Russian blood oil products from Indian refineries are increasing each year. The more we import, the more reliant we are likely to become, and that's very risky.

The 2023 Defence Strategic Review talks about needing a more robust fuel posture. Russia cannot be relied on to deliver a robust fuel posture or energy resilience. Russia cannot be relied on, full stop. What we can rely on are our strong domestic resource capabilities. The strategic review identified the need to leverage our minerals and petroleum resources infrastructure to achieve resilience. As an alternative to keeping our hands filthy with Russian blood oil, national energy resilience might require using infrastructure that is already being decommissioned.

In flexing its sanction muscles the government talks about the need to support stability in global energy markets, but at what price? And how does filling the Kremlin's tax coffers to the order of $1.8 billion help global energy markets? It has certainly propped up the price of Russian oil and has helped to increase the volume of oil Russia sells globally. In fact, Australia has done so well to prop up the Russian oil market that we've fallen to first place among the buyers. What a disgrace. A fight against missiles, drones and tanks, all of which are paid for with the money from the sale of blood oil—that is the true price of a system which allows the big petroleum companies to operate behind opaque supply chains. It is time we washed this blood off our hands.