Interview with Natalie Barr, Channel Seven, Sunrise
NATALIE BARR: Well, let's go to our top story. A stark warning this morning for Aussies: petrol prices aren't expected to drop anytime soon, even if the US backs out of Iran. It comes as Donald Trump issued a shock new threat to Tehran saying, quote: open the effing Strait, you crazy blanks.
But authorities in Iran aren't budging, instead accusing the President of sheer desperation and anger. For more, we're joined by Energy Minister Chris Bowen. Good morning to you. 'Open the effing Strait' - what do you make of Donald Trump's latest threat?
CHRIS BOWEN: Good morning, Nat. Nice to talk to you again. Well, I wouldn't use such colourful language, but I would say we want to see the Straits of Hormuz open and flowing, and that is in the best interest of the world economy.
Australians did not start this dispute in the Middle East, but Australians like Americans and British and Germans and Canadians and everyone else is paying the price to fuel prices and the sooner this comes to an end, the quicker fuel prices will return to more normal levels. NATALIE BARR: Yeah, so will this make it go any faster? CHRIS BOWEN: Well, you know, I'm not going to provide a running commentary on everything that Donald Trump or anyone else says about this dispute in the Middle East, because it's pretty fast changing.
But the PM laid it out very well in his speech for the Press Club last week. We want to see more clarity about the objectives of the United States and when and how they'll be met. We also want to see Iran open up the Straits of Hormuz so that fuel can flow to not only Australians but to people around the world, and our economy can get back to more normal.
NATALIE BARR: Okay, we've got experts saying this recovery has got a long tail on it. So many things have been bombed over there, it's not even a matter of just opening the Strait, which will take months. What's your long-term plan?
CHRIS BOWEN: Well, I mean, we've said similar things, Nat. And the first thing I should say is, last time we spoke, it was just after the excise cut, and I pointed out it would take a little while to flow through, and we've been pleased with how it's flown through to service stations over Easter and around Australia. We've seen that cut by and large passed on pretty quickly, so that's a good thing.
Secondly, as we've said consistently, as correctly as you pointed out, even if the Straits of Hormuz is open tomorrow, there's going to be impacts for quite a while for the world to recover. There's been gas fields and production facilities bombed. They take five years to rebuild, for example.
So there's going to be some impact. But I can tell you this, the sooner it all opens and returns to normal, the sooner the international economy will get back to normal, the sooner diesel l and petrol prices will get back to normal. So there's no time like today, but every bit of delay means that tail that is going to be there for quite a while and maybe show itself in ways that can't 100 per cent be predicted today, will be there for quite a while yet.
NATALIE BARR: Okay, you know a question a lot of people are asking now that we're in the thick of this and everyone's paying more than they want to – should we be opening more oil refineries? We're down to two. CHRIS BOWEN: So we did have six in 2013.
Yeah, and then when we came back to office, they'd fallen to two, as you said, in 2022. And largely that's because, to be fair to everyone involved, these days, refiners have to be very big to be economic. But we have stepped in and saved those two.
As, you know, just a couple of weeks ago I announced it would be easier for them to get payments going through, and we won't see either of those closed. But ultimately, economics will determine these things. I hear people say drill for more oil.
Matt Canavan said we should drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight. When he was resources administrator he had a go at that, and the companies gave back their licences because it's very deep and geologically challenging, and therefore very expensive there. So these things have got to be determined by economics and engineering and not by ideology.
Ultimately, if the economics for these things work, that's great. In the short term, Nat, I'm focused on getting fuel to service stations. We've made good progress over the weekend.
I'm very pleased that our service stations without diesel in New South Wales for example, according to the latest figures I have, with more figures to come later today, was down to 145 on the weekend out of the 2400 in New South Wales. That's big progress. So I want to give a big shout out to the workers who worked so hard over Easter to get the trucks around New South Wales.
It was around all of Australia, but particularly around New South Wales where the farmers are seeding and sowing at the moment. So they've been our first priority to get fuel to them. That means those service station outages have been a bit higher than we'd like, but nevertheless, we've seen really good progress over the Easter weekend with so many people moving around.
NATALIE BARR: Okay, so when people say drill, baby, drill, you're saying the companies say it's uneconomic. They're not going to make enough money. That's the answer to that.
CHRIS BOWEN: NATALIE BARR: Are we at the bottom of the cycle? Should we fill up now? CHRIS BOWEN: Well, people should get as much fuel as they need.
No more, no less. You know, trying to get ahead and panic buy really does make this problem much, much worse, not better, for everyone. That's where this whole- the same amount of fuel is coming to Australia as we expected.
The refineries are working full pelt. I understand why people turn up at a servo and they hear me saying there's plenty of fuel in Australia but it might be out of diesel – how could those two things be true? Well, they can be true.
We're making lots of fuel in Australia. Every single drop in Australia that's made in Australia is staying in Australia at the moment. We're not exporting any.
That's the way it should be. We've got the imports coming in just as normal. But we have seen those big spikes in in demand.
Easter demand was up 30 per cent on Easter before, the fuel companies tell me. That means those trucks are going to be working extra overtime to get the fuel around Australia. We can all help by just getting as much fuel as we need.
Don't get less than you normally get, but don't get more. NATALIE BARR: Okay. Chris Bowen, thank you for your time.
CHRIS BOWEN: Thanks, Nat. Nice to chat. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture.
We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.