Lisa Darmanin (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Treasurer, Senator Gallagher. Can the minister update the chamber on how the Australian economy is well positioned to manage global economic uncertainty caused by the conflict in the Middle East?

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Darmanin for the question, and it's an important one. The escalation of conflict in the Middle East has already had significant impacts on the global economy, including on uncertainty, which always weighs heavily on markets. When this conflict began, we said we expected to see flow-on effects for the global economy, and we are seeing that play out.

Oil is trading at about $90 now, I think—the last time I looked—but it got up to almost $120 a barrel yesterday. It was at $60 at the start of the year and at about $73 at the start of this conflict. It has come down since yesterday, but it remains much higher than it was prior to the conflict beginning. In addition to the comments that Senator Wong has already made, our nation is fuel secure. We are above our minimum petrol stockholding obligations. Petrol companies have informed us that their fuel stocks continue to arrive in Australia on time and in the quantities that they expect, and we are in this position because the government has acted over the last few years to build resilience. But we know the longer this conflict drags on the more significant the impact on Australia will be.

We had an inflation challenge before these developments, but the conflict in the Middle East risks making that worse, and we will update our inflation forecasts in the budget in the usual way. Markets were especially pessimistic over the last couple of days, but have begun to rebound today in reaction to comments from President Trump. The government and regulators are continuing to monitor the markets and the impact of this volatility closely. While Australia isn't immune to the global instability, we are well positioned, and last week's national accounts showed we had stronger economic growth than any major advanced economy. We've got low unemployment, high participation and strong jobs growth. (Time expired)

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Darmanin, first supplementary?

Lisa Darmanin (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, as you've outlined, the Albanese Labor government is closely monitoring developments, including any impact ongoing conflict may have on the cost of living for Australians. What steps is the Albanese Labor government taking to ensure consumers are being protected during this time of global uncertainty?

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Darmanin for the supplementary. We've been clear with industry that the international crisis is not a chance to make a quick buck, and we take that seriously. That's why the Treasurer has written to the ACCC to ensure they are monitoring prices and market conduct. The ACCC have issued their own statement, putting retailers on notice, and senators will be aware that we increased penalties to up to $50 million, which is five times higher than they were.

So we've given the ACCC the tools they need, like extending petrol price monitoring powers and the ability to issue on-the-spot fines. Also, Minister Bowen, Minister Ayres and Minister Collins are convening key representatives from the farming, trucking, fuel and fertiliser industries today to ensure supply chains are well managed, and we will continue to monitor supply shipping and prices of fuel closely, with Minister Bowen convening the National Oil Supplies Emergency Committee to ensure all states and territories are—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Minister. Senator Darmanin, second supplementary?

Lisa Darmanin (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When this government came to office, it was faced with an energy system that had been mismanaged for a decade. Can the minister explain why building resilience and sovereign capability has been such a high priority for this government?

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Darmanin for the question. Australians can have confidence in Australia's fuel security, because we have taken the action we needed to take to improve the situation from what we inherited. When we came to government, we had seen the closure of four of Australia's six fuel refineries, and Australia's emergency fuel supplies were located in Texas.

The coalition closed refineries; we've kept them open. The coalition stored emergency fuel on another continent; we are storing it here. The coalition talked about minimum stockholding obligations; we have implemented them. And the coalition talked about low-carbon-liquid fuels, like ethanol; we are investing in them. They've also voted against our coal and gas price caps and energy bill relief for Australians. The decisions we have made in the last term and over the last few years have put us in a much stronger position to deal with some of the pressures that we have seen flow out of the conflict in the Middle East.