Interview with Melissa Clarke, ABC Radio National Breakfast

Chris Bowen, welcome back to Radio National Breakfast. CHRIS BOWEN : Good morning, Mel. Good morning everyone listening.

MELISSA CLARKE : Before we get to the domestic situation, what do you think of President Donald Trump's social media comments over the weekend using expletives and threatening to attack power plants if Iran doesn't open the Strait of Hormuz? CHRIS BOWEN: Well, for the last 10 years, I haven't made a habit of commenting on every social media comment of President Trump, and I don't intend to start now because we'd all keep ourselves very busy.

We want to see the Strait of Hormuz open. But … MELISSA CLARKE: [Interrupts] This isn't any ordinary comment from Donald Trump, though. Does this not meet the threshold of warranting some kind of response?

CHRIS BOWEN: Well, the Prime Minister's made it clear, and I think appropriately, that we are unclear about what the objectives of the United States are here, and we want to see those objectives clarified and a plan as to how they'll be met. We also want to see Iran open the Strait of Hormuz and stop bombing ships. We are not participants in this war.

We didn't participate in the decision to begin the war, but we are, like many like-minded countries, calling for it to end in the best interest of the people of the Middle East, obviously, but also in the best interest of the world economy, so that the world economy, which will have impacts for weeks and months to come regardless of even if it stops today, but the sooner it stops, the more the world can get back to more normal operations.

MELISSA CLARKE: Yeah, and when we look at operations here, perhaps- could you give us an update on how many days of petrol, diesel and jet fuel we currently have? CHRIS BOWEN: Certainly, Mel. I do this every Saturday now, and this Saturday was no exception, give an update to the country about what our fuel stocks are, and they're pretty good.

Thirty-nine days’ worth of petrol, that's 1.7 billion litres; 29 days’ worth of diesel, that's 2.6 billion litres; and 29 days of jet fuel, that's around 850 million litres. Now, that's pretty flat. That's been pretty consistent all the way through.

That tells me two things … MELISSA CLARKE: [Talks over] Would you expect that to be lower today, though, given a lot of travel on the road for the Easter holiday, would we expect that what those figures might be for today on Monday might be a little bit lower? CHRIS BOWEN: Well, we did the weekly update. There's really no point sort of getting down to- it moves around as fuel goes out and fuel comes in.

Weekly's a very sort of useful update. But it's been consistent all the way through, Mel, which told me that the fuel is going out the door at record rates. I mean, demand is very high, but the fuel is also coming in the door through imports and the two refineries.

And to your point about Easter demand, I mean, the latest figures that I have are pretty encouraging in terms of service station outages. A lot of work more to do, but a lot of people worked very hard over Easter to keep up with that extra demand. We've seen the number of service stations in New South Wales without diesel, which has been one of our biggest challenges, down to 145 out of 2400 service stations over the weekend.

That's with a lot more people moving around, that's 6 per cent of service stations. New South Wales has been one of our biggest challenges. Most of the other outages are around 2 to 3 per cent around the country.

New South Wales has been higher because the farmers are seeding and sowing and they've been the priority to get fuel to them. That means we've had more outages in New South Wales than anyone would like, but that figure has been coming down, including over Easter. We had the fuel companies increasing their truck fleets by 20 per cent, getting more trucks out there over Easter.

A lot of people working very hard. And I do want to give the workers there a big shout out, because a lot of people work hard over Easter to keep that supply flowing. MELISSA CLARKE: Indeed.

When there's a question of supply, there's also the question of price. Are we seeing retailers pass on the cuts that have come to the fuel excise? CHRIS BOWEN: Yeah, we're encouraged by how quickly that's been passed on.

Obviously, the ACCC is monitoring closely any particular service stations or suppliers that might not do the right thing. I'll leave them to comment on their own actions and independent activities. But across the board, you saw prices start to fall quite quickly.

And … MELISSA CLARKE: [Interrupts] In the cities and in the regions? CHRIS BOWEN: Yeah, well, as soon as the new fuel was delivered. So we made the point- the Treasurer and I were both out making the point late last week that the excise on the fuel underneath the service station in the big tanks has already been paid.

So you're not going to see that at six o'clock in the morning at every service station across the country, you've got to wait for that fuel to be replenished and for the lower tax fuel to come in. That has been happening, and those fuel prices have dropped as a result. Now, obviously, they're still very high because of international circumstances.

We've always made the point that the biggest impact on fuel prices is international oil prices, but we can take the edge off and make a difference. And that's what we've done, and we're pretty pleased with the way that's flowed through. MELISSA CLARKE: You mentioned there's fuel going out, but there is still fuel coming in.

That's ships that are on the water at the moment, still bringing supply to Australia. The big question globally is what happens next month. What's your sense of what position Australia will be in in May?

CHRIS BOWEN: So yeah, I mean, at the beginning of this international crisis, I made the point that we were okay until mid-April. Now it's the case that we're okay all through April and now into May, so all the orders are locked in and contracted. Once it's contracted, the fuel belongs to the Australian company that's bought it.

So that is legally locked in, so that's encouraging. We do have 3.7 billion litres of different types of fuel on their way to Australia for April. And I was speaking to the chief executives of the major oil companies over the weekend, over Easter.

Everyone was working, and they were giving me updates to say, yes, there's more orders being made, more orders being locked in, more on its way. That's not to say that of course there is a risk in international circumstance and international situation, but every step that can be taken is being taken. We've been talking to our training partners, they're in a great space.

Singapore, Korea, Malaysia all recognise their obligations to remain a reliable energy supplier as much as they can, just as they look to us to be a reliable supplier of the energy we send to them. MELISSA CLARKE: You're listening to Radio National Breakfast, where my guest is the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen. Minister, last week the government threatened to limit gas exports if east coast producers don't deliver more supply domestically within the next 30 days, they want- you want to deal.

But at the same time, as you're saying just now, you're spruiking the fact that Australia is a reliable exporter of gas. Aren't they contradictory signals? CHRIS BOWEN: No, I don't think so, Mel.

I'd understand why you'd ask that question, but I don't think so when you look at the substance of what's happened here. We had a quite minor shortfall forecast for quarter six, that's what- so quarter three 2026, I should say, of somewhere between 12 petajoules deficit and three petajoules surplus. Minister King, Madeleine King, has correctly said to the gas companies, we need to get that fixed, or- and she has exercised her legal ...

MELISSA CLARKE: [Interrupts] But the gas companies say they've been offering up gas and no-one's taken that offer for that period. CHRIS BOWEN: Well, we still have a forecast small shortage. The gas statement of opportunities by AEMO shows that the policies we've been putting in place so that the longer-term structural shortages have been pushed way out.

That's a good thing. But- and we're also pursuing the gas reservation policy. But to your point, we've communicated what we're dealing with here to our trading partners.

They're very understanding, and I'm confident and hopeful that that small projected shortfall will be dealt with and Minister King won't to take any further action. That's why she's done what she's done to say, okay, we need to fix this or we'll need to look at what ... MELISSA CLARKE: [Interrupts] So is it a bit of an empty threat, then, if you're telling your partners that there's not going to be any change in export arrangements?

CHRIS BOWEN: No. I didn't say that, Mel. I said we've communicated to them what we're doing and why we're doing it.

That's very important, they understand that. I've also said that we're hopeful that the next step won't need to be taken and quite upbeat that the companies will do the right thing. But if they don't, then Minister King has certain triggers that she can use, and she's flagged in an open and transparent way that she will do that if she absolutely has to.

That's all pretty sensible, Mel, with respect, and people who we've spoken to certainly understand that and get that. MELISSA CLARKE : So you're confident that waving the big stick will do the job? CHRIS BOWEN: Well, that's why Minister King has done it in an open and transparent way to say, okay, we do have tools here, but we'd rather not use them.

Let's get this sorted in advance, And I'm hopeful that will happen. MELISSA CLARKE: Chris Bowen … CHRIS BOWEN: [Talks over] It normally does happen. MELISSA CLARKE: Yeah, indeed.

Chris Bowen, thank you very much for speaking to Radio National Breakfast this morning. CHRIS BOWEN: Good on you, Mel. Nice to chat.

Happy Easter, everyone. MELISSA CLARKE: You too. Chris Bowen is the Minister for Climate Change and Energy.

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