Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

But I am across the circumstances which led a number of Australians to buy jerry cans and to fuel up, and they are, of course, the conflict in the Middle East. I know the opposition appear to not want to treat this seriously today, but there is a serious question about how we deal with the largest global shock to energy markets since the 1970s. That is a serious economic and policy question, and it is an important issue for public figures to manage responsibly.

What I'd say to the opposition is: we laid out yesterday a very clear plan that responded to the growing challenges in global energy markets. We have obviously been acting prior to this. You've seen the release of 20 per cent of the minimum stockholding obligations. You've seen changes to the fuel regulations, to enable more fuel produced in Australia to be used here. You've seen the way in which the government has sought to deal with this issue. Then, on Saturday, you saw the Prime Minister and Minister Bowen make a very important announcement, which Senator Farrell was also engaged in, which was about more supply—to use Export Finance Australia to de-risk some of the purchases on the private market to increase supply. These are serious matters involving serious considerations. (Time expired)