Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator O'Sullivan has submitted a proposal, under standing order 75, today, as shown at item 13 on today's Order of Business:

Pursuant to standing order 75, I give notice that today I propose to move "That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The Albanese Government's failure to ensure Australia's sovereign capability in the supply of fertiliser, placing Australian agriculture, the resources sector and national food security at serious risk."

Is consideration of the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clock in line with the informal arrangements made by the whips.

Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Choice in Childcare and Early Learning) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The Albanese Government's failure to ensure Australia's sovereign capability in the supply of fertiliser, placing Australian agriculture, the resources sector and national food security at serious risk.

Just weeks after the US-Israel strikes on Iran, the Albanese government has shown exactly how unprepared it is to deal with this global crisis. This is the reality: the US had been positioning various military assets off the coast of Iran for several weeks leading up to 28 February, yet what preparations were made? Everyone could see it. Everyone could see what was happening, but what preparations were made for a conflict and the potential impact that it might have on the Australian economy, in particular the supply of fuel and fertiliser? Evidently, very little.

This episode further underscores the lack of preparedness by this government in building resilience into Australia's sovereign capability. We learnt over the weekend, in my home state of Western Australia, of the two-month closure of Australia's largest ammonia plant in my home state there in WA. Ammonia is made from natural gas that comes from just across the road at the Karratha Gas Plant. Big pipes go across the road and feed into this very important plant. Out of this plant, ammonia is created. It takes a natural gas and converts it to ammonia and, further down the process, to ammonium nitrate, which is used in the mining industry. It's used to make big rocks little rocks. You blow it up, and then you load it on to the train and sell it overseas to the market that wants it. This is absolutely critical infrastructure.

Through no fault of anyone, there was a power failure at this particular site. They pressed the big red button which made it stop all of a sudden, and it's going to take two months for the repairs to be made and for the plant to be restarted. That means there is a two-month closure of this very important facility, this very important manufacturer of ammonia and ammonium nitrate. Ammonia is used as a precursor, as an ingredient, that goes into the producing of fertilisers, including urea. It's exported to other factories across Australia and indeed across the world. This plant's been closed, and it's going to be closed for two months—very unfortunate timing when you consider the Strait of Hormuz is also closed.

Then today in the Australian we read that Orica's Kooragang Island ammonia plant in New South Wales is also facing an outage. Two absolutely vital and critical facilities right at this time. Clearly it's an unusual circumstance that this has occurred right at this time, but it's a very unfortunate circumstance. It's really a double whammy when it comes to our sovereign resilience because we have now limited capacity to produce our own fertiliser and ammonium nitrate which is essential for the resources sector.

The shutdown of Yara Pilbara's plant shows and underlines a very serious problem that we have, which is our capacity to have sovereign manufacturing capability in this country. The fact is that we are so reliant on just a few facilities, and when a crisis comes, resilience is tested. Unfortunately, right now, Australia's resilience is seriously tested. Now, I'm not an alarmist—you know me, Acting Deputy President—but this is serious.

Unfortunately, as it is with fuel, we're not seeing the government step up. I asked a question during question time—well, I helped draft a question that Senator Kovacic asked—and it wasn't satisfactorily answered, frankly, because the minister didn't seem to grasp the seriousness of this issue. It is a serious problem that we've got such concentrated domestic facilities and that Australia doesn't have the capability to deal with our own needs, whether it be fuel or fertiliser and ammonium nitrate. The government needs to step up, and we need to create the right environment and policies to enable these production facilities to exist in this country. Unfortunately, under this government and their policies, it's hard to do. (Time expired)

Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will contend that Senator O'Sullivan generally isn't an alarmist in nature, but you made a pretty good effort at an impression of alarm there, Senator O'Sullivan.

Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Choice in Childcare and Early Learning) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a serious problem.

Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a serious problem that needs to be dealt with, and it's a lucky thing for Australia that it's a stable Labor Albanese government that's in power right now, because the only thing that would be on offer from those opposite is the internecine warfare they've been inflicting on one another. That is not the kind of party that can lead a nation. We need orderly, steady government because this really matters.

Businesses do not look to the parliament for entertainment or cheap shots. They've got capital on the line. They've got their businesses on the line. They need sensible, clear, accurate information, and they need steady, clear pathways to delivering the essential things that Australia needs. That is what our government is focusing on. I didn't come into politics for entertainment value; I came into politics because I believe that this is a great country and it is served well by great governments of the Labor tradition that take our role in this country very, very seriously. That is why I am proud to stand here today to try and get some facts on the record.

Australia today is absolutely navigating a world that looks very different from the one that many of us grew up in. In fact, it's very different to the world that we knew even five years ago. It's a world marked by uncertainty, conflict and economic pressure that reaches right into household budgets. It's in that environment that governments that are responsible, as our government is, take responsibility not to inflame fear but to provide stability, security and practical support where it's required.

The facts with regard to the fertiliser industry are important to put on the record for anybody who's listening across this great country. We know how vital this is for rural and regional Australians, who are looking at supply chains and the global upheaval of the moment and wondering exactly what this means for their businesses and how it will impact them. I want to be very clear that the government is very closely monitoring the impact on fuel and broader supply chains, including plastics and fertiliser. Not only are we monitoring this but we are working carefully and closely with industry to stay ahead of emerging risks. That work is being done not on the floor of the chamber in alarmism but in practical, serious consideration—off to the side, the proper work of government.

With particular regard to fertiliser and the matter of urea, Australia is not facing an immediate shortage. However, market conditions are tightening and pressure is likely to increase from early to mid-April as planting activity picks up. We know that, you know that, and that's why we are working to establish more stable supply lines and working with people in our region—not just from the Middle East, where we are exposed to that market at an extraordinarily high level. That has been our historical practice, but, as I said, this is a world in incredible flux.

To support farmers to plan with confidence, the government is working closely with the industry bodies that represent you as our farmers—as the growers of produce for this country. We need to maintain visibility of supply and consider the practical options that are necessary to stretch available nitrogen supplies and improve access wherever possible. On plastics and petrochemicals, the current state, as I speak to you today, is that there are currently no widespread shortages. But we all know—everybody's reading the news—that global supply conditions are tightening due to what's often called a force majeure event in Asia.

We are entering this period from a relatively strong market position. I'm proud of Australian farmers and I'm proud of Australian producers, who do the very best they can to use all of these resources as efficiently and effectively as possible. The fact that we have good know-how, good knowledge and good practice puts us in good stead. The government is working very carefully to understand emerging pressures and identify where bottlenecks are likely to occur, and we will address these issues as early as possible. That is steady government with commitment to the Australian people. No fear, no alarm—we'll get through this. (Time expired)

Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australians, including Australian farmers, are hurting because this country has been dragged into another US forever war. It's ironic that the Liberal Party came in with this motion today; the Liberal Party are a party that supports this war. The National Party are a party that supports this war. The Labor Party—the government—are a party that supports this war. One Nation, another war party, are a political party that supports this war. They come in here today and they criticise the government for its lack of preparation. Well, I accept that, but you also support this conflict.

No wonder people are cynical and anxious about where this is all going to lead. Yes, Australian farmers should be concerned about input prices into their production, be it diesel or be it fertiliser. They should be concerned because there is no exit plan from this war. There's not even a plan B. We've been repeatedly lied to about this conflict. Where does it go from here? There is such a high level of anxiety in this country right now. Why are we being drawn into this war, queuing at petrol bowsers and paying more at the supermarkets because of countries like Israel and the US, who won't even tell us why they went into this war in the first place? Is it because of Israeli elections in a few months? Is that why we're all suffering? Could it be that simple? Who knows? But we know one thing, and that is that we need truth and we need transparency.

Let's talk about the fertiliser market, very quickly. It has been an issue in this country for decades—the fact that we have to import a lot of our fertilisers. Various governments haven't dealt with it. It's a good time to be having this debate now, when we are suffering under these conditions, but this is a long-term structural problem.

Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The lack of organisation and response by this Labor government has been silent and insidious, and supported in many cases by both the Greens party and many of the crossbenchers. They have done it under the cloak of pretending to take action, and I'll give you a couple of examples. The first one was in government. We were still trying to release offshore tenure and acreage for things like the Great Australian Bight for more drilling for oil, to support Australia's refineries, and more drilling for additional gas, and, of course, the project that we had approved under NAIF, which was the Perdaman urea project at Karratha. These were the sorts of actions that we were taking.

Let me outline to you what has happened in the last four years since Labor have been in government. They have released no new offshore acreage—except for some very deep acreage, which then has the additional condition of no seismic testing, which means wildcat drilling, and drill holes that cost around $100 million each, so I'm not sure how many projects are going to take up that offer. They have encouraged activist organisations like the Environmental Defenders Office, and they've done that through funding them. Those activists have undermined every single new project for new gas; they're certainly not for new oil.

Even important projects like Perdaman have not been safe from the activists' greedy claws, with support from many of the crossbenchers trying to run arguments that somehow the development of this important urea project at Karratha would damage the environment, despite environmental approvals and others in place and this being in the national interest. The point has been made so clearly that the over two million tonnes of urea that will be manufactured at that site annually from 2027 would, in large part, cover Australia's domestic requirements. That is the sort of forward planning that the coalition was doing, but, under Labor, projects like the urea project have been delayed through activist lawfare, and offshore drilling for important oil projects to support refineries right here in Australia has been made so difficult.

The latest example is the changes to the EPBC legislation. There is nobody in their right mind that thinks that the new standards are going to in any way speed up, facilitate or provide greater clarity for decision-making in approvals. Indeed, it will be exactly the opposite. We will see duplication of consultation requirements for Aboriginal consultation. We have seen crazy outcomes like the 15-year vegetation management law to apply to all bioregions across Australia. We have seen no clarity on things like net gain. This is the sort of legislation that you introduce that pretends to be in Australia's national interests but actually will just see slow approvals or no approvals.

What Australians are now facing is the uncertainty driven by this conflict in the Middle East. It has brought into sharp relief the failure of this Labor government to actually progress anything new. Instead, they are taking credit for projects that were started under the coalition, and quietly killing off any of the other tenures that we had left in place in the May 2022 election.

We should be afraid. We've got two refineries left because of the subsidies and incentives left in place by the coalition. What about the crazy fuel standards introduced by Labor which mean that the Lytton refinery is forced to export the fuel that it refines because it doesn't meet Labor's new crazy standards? What about the safeguard mechanism that is our taxing energy producers out of existence? Australia is in a bad way under Labor. We will restore standards— (Time expired)

Corinne Mulholland (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It feels like it's become a full-time job for the government to come into this place and correct the scaremongering of those opposite. They're not happy unless they're scaring little old ladies, worrying them about fuel, scaring them about fertiliser. Next, they'll be whipping them back up again about toilet paper. But facts matter right now, and they matter to the Australian people. Those opposite have never let the facts get in the way of a good bit of social media clickbait. In the era of increasing misinformation and disinformation, we cannot sit back and let this opposition put their political games ahead of the interests of the Australian people.

Let us turn to the fertiliser supply in this nation. It is vital that, like any critical supply measure, we discuss it calmly, based on facts, not on fearmongering. Since the escalation of the Iran conflict, the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, has been upfront about this difficult situation facing our nation. He has not denied the pressure that global supply chains are under. He has not sugar-coated the challenge. In fact, Minister Bowen has explicitly acknowledged that fertiliser sits at the acute end of the supply chain challenges being felt globally right now. In my home state of Queensland, where we have Australia's only producer of ammonium and phosphate fertiliser onshore, operating at Phosphate Hill in the north-west of the state, this is more important than ever before. We know that Australia sits in a very precarious situation because we are still reliant on imports of around 65 per cent of urea based fertiliser from the Middle East. That's how the Iranian conflict underscores why Australia can't rely purely on imports. It's part of our future made in Australia. That is why this government is charting our future made in Australia. We need to support the development of our sovereign capability. We know Australia's domestic urea production won't restart in Western Australia—in Senator O'Sullivan's own state—until 2027. We know there is more work that needs to be done to continue to build our sovereign capability, not just shutting refinery after refinery, like we saw under those opposite when they were last in power.

Turning back to fertiliser supply, fortunately there are supplies already in this country that are covering early-season demand. However, as the planting season continues, in mid-April, the government will continue to monitor the supply closely, which is why Ministers Bowen, Ayres and Collins met with the National Farmers' Federation and the fertiliser industry representatives, just last week, to coordinate our national response. Minister Collins, in partnership with the industry and the ACCC, is working on allowing sector coordination to make sure that fertiliser gets to where it needs to. This increased level of coordination and active monitoring is about greater transparency. Transparency is critical in times of crisis. It would be beneficial, in the difficult weeks to come, if those opposite could try to show a similar level of leadership, because the coalition knows perfectly well it is impossible for Australia to somehow insulate itself from the global fertiliser markets overnight.

Senator O'Sullivan knows that fertiliser production is intrinsically tied to global energy markets, particularly gas. It's traded internationally and, when global supply chains are disrupted at scale, every country feels it. The question is not whether Australia can avoid global shocks entirely; the question is: how does a responsible government plan for and respond to those shocks when they occur? We know that those opposite did not have any real energy plan when they were last in government. Just the mere sight of a solar panel sends a shiver up their spine, and the mention of climate change sends their party room into a nuclear meltdown. Your new leader of the opposition was the worst energy minister in Australian history, overseeing the shutdown of six out of this country's eight oil refineries and wanting to stockpile our fuel in the United States of America. You never had a real plan, because you never did any real work in this space. You just crossed your fingers and hoped things would get better. Hope is not a plan; action is. In the Albanese government, Australians have a leadership team that has been talking action in a calm, considered and deliberate way as our country faces one of the most significant global energy and supply disruptions in our history.

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

Fertiliser is not merely an import in Western Australia, along with diesel; it is the backbone of one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world. Western Australia produces roughly 40 per cent of Australia's grain exports, and that output is only possible because of consistent large-scale fertiliser use across the wheat belt and the south-west growing region. Urea is normally around $700 a tonne. It is now almost $1,400 a tonne and is predicted to go to $2,000 a tonne. That's if you can get it. All fertiliser prices have almost doubled. Our farmers are hurting. Our farmers are seeding soon, and putting a crop in at a much greater cost is a potential double hit. If farmers can't put enough in at seeding due to availability and cost and if fertiliser is not available for the spring crop application or as an ongoing requirement for horticulture, dairy and beef, the situation gets exponentially worse, and then there's a diesel shortage and the extra costs that go with it, adding even more uncertainty for our farmers, who already have enough variables out of their control even before the supply and the cost of their two biggest imports were unreliable.

Banks are expecting foreclosures if businesses slow or stop their operations. It's a disaster. In the Pilbara, the Yara Pilbara Fertiliser plant on the Burrup Peninsula near Dampier is one of the largest ammonia facilities globally. Unfortunately, the Yara plant is currently shutdown for two months. Just-in-time systems have led to WA being particularly susceptible to shock. Decades of government mismanagement, neglect and irresponsibility have led to this vulnerability. We're the lucky country no more. One Nation has been saying that we need to be self-reliant and that Australia must stand on its own two feet for decades. We must take control of our country and our future.

Fatima Payman (WA, Australia's Voice) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A saying attributed to British intelligence branch MI5 is that society is always just four meals away from anarchy. Investment agency Klimb found that, in 2024, Australia consumed 8.7 million tonnes of fertiliser, valued at $5.5 billion, of which imports accounted for 7.9 million tonnes. Reliance on international supplies has only risen as Australia's domestic manufacturing industry has withered. According to the commodity journal Argus Media, the price of urea, a key fertiliser, rose by nearly 20 per cent in the first week of the Iran war. Current domestic supplies are expected to last until mid-April, and, as Argus Media points out, this could not have come at a worse time. Domestic demand for granular urea peaks in April to June for pre-seeding and top-dressing applications on winter crops such as canola, barley and wheat.

Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this urgency motion because it goes to the heart of something this government should have secured a long time ago—Australia's sovereign capability in fertiliser supply. This is not a minor supply chain issue; it is a case study in how exposed Australia has become under the Albanese Labor government to external shocks in the critical imports needed to keep this country running.

Fertiliser underpins food production, mining and regional economies. In Western Australia in particular, ammonia is critical not only for agriculture but for the explosives that drive our resources sector. Australia's largest ammonia plant in the Pilbara—a place I know well—is shut for two months after a power outage damaged equipment on the site. It produces around 850,000 tonnes of ammonia a year, with a significant share feeding technical ammonium nitrate for mining and urea fertiliser. So, at precisely the moment global supply has tightened, local capacity has been limited. This leaves us at the mercy of external factors during a period of historic global uncertainty. In 2024, Australia consumed 8.7 million tonnes of fertiliser but imported 7.9 million tonnes. Domestic production has fallen to just 1.3 million tonnes, around 15 per cent of total consumption. Rather than being resilient, we are dependent, and much of that dependence runs through the world's most volatile chokepoints. More than a quarter of global ammonia trade and 43 per cent of urea shipments pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Australia sources more than half of its urea imports from Gulf nations, so when conflict disrupts that route, Australia is hit immediately. Supply is tightening and prices surging, rising from around $870 a tonne in late February to more than $1,200 a tonne and, in some areas, as high as $1,600 a tonne. Grain Central reports the world market is now struggling to send supply our way as the halt to shipping from the Persian Gulf enters its fourth week.

For farmers, this is not just about price. Timing is everything in farming. Fertiliser that arrives too late is not a solution, as Grain Producers Australia chair Barry Large made clear. Saying it will arrive in two weeks does not solve the problem. Growers in Western Australia are already being forced to rethink cropping decisions, reducing wheat plantings, shifting crops or cutting inputs altogether. As industry leaders are warning, if supply remains tight, some land will simply not be planted, and that incidentally is how food risk and insecurity begin—not with empty supermarket shelves overnight but with delayed seeding, reduced inputs, lower yields and less confidence to plant. The National Farmers ' Federation has said that while current shipments may help secure this winter crop there is no confidence about supply beyond May, a point a Labor senator reiterated in her remarks. If in-crop requirements cannot be met, the winter crop in Australia could be halved. Those are not words that any government should hear and simply shrug off.

Agriculture is not the only sector exposed. Western Australia's mining industry relies on technical ammonium nitrate as explosives to sustain iron ore production. If supply is constrained, miners will be forced to rely on stockpiles or source alternative supplies at short notice. At a time when Australia should be strengthening sovereign industrial capability, this government has presided over growing fragility in a critical input for both agriculture and resources sectors. Fuel insecurity is compounding the problem. Farmers are already warning about difficulties obtaining enough diesel for seeding and harvest. Miners are experiencing the same shortages. Diesel prices have surged. The result is that they are being squeezed from both sides now—uncertain fertiliser and uncertain fuel.

Again, this is why sovereign capability matters. Australia has the gas, the industrial base, the agricultural demand and the strategic need to do better than this, yet under Labor we remain exposed to a single point of failure in global supply while domestic production has declined and contingency planning has lagged. The Albanese government has failed in this regard, and Australian farmers and Australia's regional communities and critical industries are now paying a very high price for Labor's lack of preparedness.

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

The question is that the urgency motion as moved by Senator O'Sullivan be agreed to.