Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, Australia does import most of its fuel—90 per cent or so—but do you know what else Australia imports? It imports about 90 per cent of its pharmaceuticals, its medicines. Yet I don't see Australians rushing to their nearest chemist and clearing the shelves of statins, antihypertensives, diabetic medications or antibiotics. What we are seeing here is extremist fearmongering being whipped up by the coalition. It is the height of irresponsibility to be doing this.

Australia is a fuel-secure nation. Just as Australians still receive their medicines when they go to the doctor, a hospital or a clinic, Australians can continue to receive their fuel provided they do not panic-buy and provided they do not listen to the fearmongering being propagated by the coalition, who have the hide to stand there and criticise us when, in their term of government, they sat back while four out of the six refineries in Australia shut down. Australia is connected to a global economy, and, with regard to fuel, our supply chains are secure and stable. In fact, don't take it from me; take it from industry. Industry has been able to fulfil its contractual obligations. That means that they are meeting their contracts to the people that are needing this fuel.

But what we are seeing around the country is panic buying being whipped up by the coalition. As a result, we are seeing some local pockets where fuel is running low or running out. But I would say to Australians that our fuel reserve is the highest it has been in 15 years. That means that we currently have 36 days of petrol, which is 1.56 billion litres of petrol, and we have 32 days of diesel, which is three billion litres of diesel. That fuel is not in Texas or Louisiana, which is where it was when the coalition were in government. That fuel is right here in Australia or in our exclusive economic zone, which means it is in transit in our maritime waters. It's actually set up in Geelong and Brisbane. That's where our fuel is—not in Texas, which is what happened under the coalition. They failed to mention that in their narrative.

In addition to that, we have charged the ACCC with making sure that Australian motorists are not being price gouged at the bowser, and we are the ones who implemented what is called a minimum stock obligation. That means that refineries are obligated to hold a minimum amount of fuel right here in Australia. In addition to that, we realised that we cannot be in a situation where we are obligated or beholden to overseas suppliers. Hence, we are investing in what is called low-carbon fuel—$1.1 billion. Part of our Future Made in Australia agenda is going towards investing in future fuels, which are things like biodiesel, sustainable aviation fuel and e-fuels. They're made from products that are grown by our farmers right here in Australia, like sorghum, canola and sugar, and from waste products like tallow. So that is one way we are diversifying.

The other thing that we're doing is investing in the electrification of our transport grid. We know that this is not a full solution and that we will still need heavy transport that is reliant on low-carbon fuels, and that's what we're investing in—$1.1 billion—for the future. We think the first product will be available to Australians in 2029. It'll drop in, meaning it'll integrate into the existing diesel supply.

In the meantime, Australians are embracing electric vehicles. There are now over 450,000 electric vehicles on the roads. December 2025 was a record period for sales of EVs. They peaked at nearly 17 per cent of new car sales. So Australians get it. They are taking their energy destiny into their own hands, and why not? One in three have solar panels, including Senator Canavan and Senator Hanson, who have now adopted solar panels. Why wouldn't they take advantage of the abundance of free energy that is bearing down on us? In addition to that, over 265,000 Australian households have now put in household batteries. This is how we strengthen Australia's energy resilience.