Tyron Whitten (WA, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is for the Minister representing the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. Australia sadly imports about 90 per cent of its fuel needs. Our fuel storage levels are the lowest in the developed world, in breach of the International Energy Agency requirement that members must hold 90 days of net oil imports onshore. Six fuel shipments from Asia to Australia were recently cancelled or deferred. We're not receiving the oil to support our domestic demands. Minister, you've been in government for four years now. Do you acknowledge that you should have been better prepared for this oil shock?

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

Thanks, Senator Whitten, for that question. It is the job of government to make sure that Australia is more resilient in a period in our history where there is no room for complacency about supply chain challenges. That is the job of the government. As I have indicated, in relation to previous questions over the last few weeks, we have undertaken that work earnestly. We have delivered an outcome where that minimum stockholding obligation is our shock absorber, but it is not the end of the story. It is not the end of the story. We will continue to be held accountable for those questions, as we should. But I do say all of us have a responsibility to be straightforward about the questions in relation to our energy security. It is not the case that Australia has reserves of crude oil that could be economically extracted. That is not the case.

Making that argument is utterly mischievous, whether it's you doing it, Senator, through the chair, or Senator Canavan or others making that argument, because it is not a practical solution. In fact, what it would do is make prices unacceptably high on a long-term basis for Australians. That would be the result. Higher prices and less fuel security would be the result of that. It's imported politics— (Time expired)

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

Senator Whitten, first supplementary?

Tyron Whitten (WA, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If this fuel crisis extends and worsens, do you hold the power necessary to force rationing of fuel on the Australian people?

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

The government has set out the proposed course of action.

A baby having begun crying in the gallery—

I should say, to my friends in the gallery, the sound of little kids in this place is always very welcome. It's always very welcome. Really, if that family—I want them to feel welcome in this place. I think we all do.

Opposition senators interjecting—

I wouldn't describe it as running down the clock. Senator Farrell is not here—I meant it, and I think we all did. We are approaching the task of delivering fuel security with all the earnestness that Australians would expect and with all of the diligence. We have undertaken that work in strong contrast to the miserable record of those that came before us, who diminished Australia's fuel security and who made our economic resilience weaker and, as a consequence, made Australia poorer.

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

Senator Whitten, second supplementary?

Tyron Whitten (WA, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, if this fuel crisis continues and our emergency supplies keep dropping, can you guarantee Australians will not run out of fuel?

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

(—) (): What I can guarantee is that, because our fuel reserve is here in Australia, actions like what was undertaken last week, where a portion of the minimum stockholding obligation was released in order to deal with some of those undersupply issues, particularly with independent retailers who have traditionally bought fuel on the spot market in order to make sure that fuel got to those parts of Australia—that kind of action, if Mr Taylor were still the energy minister, would not be open to the government. He had Australia's minimum stockholding obligation stored somewhere in Texas, El Paso, Dallas? I don't know where. It was a magical fairy dust allocation. (Time expired)