Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

If it was asked seriously, there wouldn't be the level of interjections that there always is on this subject. Let me just state very, very plainly what the position is in terms of national fuel supplies. Then I will come to the example that Senator Colbeck has raised, which reflects the experience of not just the example that he raised but some parts of regional Australia. At the national level, there is in terms of petrol supplies 1.56 billion litres of petrol on hand here in Australia. Eighty per cent of it is on land and around 20 per cent of it is on the water between refineries and ports within our exclusive economic zone. There's 32 days worth of diesel—2.97 billion litres. Those numbers have not fundamentally changed since the conflict in the Middle East began. That reflects what the petroleum sector and others have been communicating directly with the minister about since the Middle East conflict began—that ship arrivals have happened exactly as expected. We're watching very closely the movements of ships towards Australia, and they are happening in an orderly, predictable way.

That does not mean that there hasn't been some unusual purchasing behaviour in some areas reported to us. I think I'll have to come to it in answer to the supplementary question, Senator Colbeck, which I'm sure will follow the same line of— (Time expired)