Press conference, Fairfield West, New South Wales

CHRIS BOWEN, MINISTER FOR CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY: Good morning, everyone. Thanks for coming out. As you know, every Saturday I provide an update to the Australian people with the latest information on the fuel situation, and I’m pleased, of course, to do so today.

Today I can confirm that we have 38 days’ worth of petrol, 31 days’ worth of diesel, and 28 days’ worth of jet fuel. That’s up two days for diesel, down a day for petrol and down two days for jet fuel. I can also confirm that we currently have 57 tankers on the way to Australia with some form of fuel, jet fuel, diesel, petrol, crude oil, coming to Australia.

That’s a good thing. On the water, at various points, some of it close, some of it leaving port, but 57 ships on the way to Australia. I can also tell you that for the next four weeks’ worth of orders, so for the next month, we have 4.1 billion litres of fuel locked in, confirmed for Australia.

That’s up on 3.7 billion litres from our last update. Now, with those reserve figures, I think it’s important to know that they are figures in reserve. It’s not the amount of fuel that we have, that’s a countdown.

It is added to by the fuel that comes in, and of course it doesn’t count the fuel that’s in cars, and it’s in service stations right around Australia. It’s designed to give that reassurance to Australians that in this very difficult international circumstance, which continues despite some progress, there’s still plenty of uncertainty internationally, that Australia is as well placed as we possibly could be.

Of course, we are not for one second relaxing our efforts to ensure security of fuel supply. That’s why the Prime Minister’s been in Singapore, is currently on his way back. He played an absolute blinder yesterday in Singapore, working closely with the Singaporean Government, which is a very big supplier, Singapore, a very big supplier of fuel to Australia, to ensure that we are reliable suppliers of fuel to each other in this most difficult international circumstance.

And we’ll keep up those sorts of efforts, and we’ll have more to say about our discussions across the board. But this is good progress. Here we are now, six weeks into this war, into this international crisis, so I can still say that not one boat that we’re expecting to arrive into Australia hasn’t arrived.

That’s a good thing. I can still say that we have roughly as much, if not more, fuel in Australia today than we did when the bombing of Iran started. That’s a good thing.

None of that is to say there aren’t risks and uncertainties going forward. But the Government is aware of those risks, is working closely with industry, both in Australia and abroad, and is ensuring that Australians have the best possible chance to get that fuel which is available around the world, and it’s coming to Australia. Oh, sorry, before I do so, I almost forgot.

I also give you a daily update on service station outages. I do that every day. The other figures are just on Saturdays.

Today’s service station outages: we have 88 in New South Wales without diesel. That’s down nine on yesterday, now been down consistently. That is now 3.7 per cent of the service stations in New South Wales without diesel.

Sixteen with no fuel at all. That’s 0.7 per cent of the service stations in New South Wales. Victoria, 30 without diesel, 17 with no unleaded.

Queensland, 28 without diesel, 17 with no unleaded. South Australia, nine and 10. Western Australia, eight and 20.

Tasmania, six and four. Northern Territory, four without diesel, two with no unleaded, and no outages at all in the ACT. That’s 173 service stations across Australia without diesel, out of the 7,940.

That’s 2.2 per cent. Again, big shout out to everyone who’s been working hard getting fuel where it’s needed, in the regions in particular, truck drivers, servo workers, refinery workers, all working full pelt to get Australians the fuel they deserve. Happy to take questions.

JOURNALIST: Did the Federal Government get the settings of the fuel excise tax cut wrong, considering that while unleaded seems to be going down, diesel is continuing to actually go up now? CHRIS BOWEN: No, not at all. That was an important lever that we have available to provide Australians with that cost of living relief.

We’ve always said the biggest impact on the cost of fuel will be the cost of oil internationally, and the cost of diesel is up around the world, more than petrol, and we’re seeing that here in Australia. And the cost of diesel in Singapore, week on week, is up 11 per cent, and the cost of petrol up 2 per cent. And I think we’re seeing that play out here in Australia.

JOURNALIST: Surely diesel is the most vital fuel source that we need, and we’re seeing that going up again. Does the Government have any other plans? CHRIS BOWEN: Well, we’ll just continue to work through the supply issues to make sure that we get diesel into Australia.

That’s the first most important thing. We’ve cut the tax in half. And importantly, the heavy vehicle road user charge, which is predominantly diesel, cut as well, which provides that cost of living relief through the supermarkets and other things, all the supply chains.

JOURNALIST: We also saw an agreement with Singapore, committing to maximum effort to keep fuel and gas flowing between the countries. But it wasn’t a firm guarantee of supply. Are you sure that if this crisis worsens that there’s still going to be fuel flowing between the two countries?

CHRIS BOWEN: I thought the Singaporean Prime Minister’s statement was very strong and very clear. And these things, these diplomatic statements are often quite nuanced. It’s a very strong statement from Singapore.

And as both Prime Ministers indicated yesterday, no one’s suggesting there aren’t supply chain risks. Singapore needs to get the oil to refine it into petrol and diesel. But they’re also diversifying their oil supplies, just as we have diversified our supply.

Those 57 tankers I mentioned are on their way to Australia, are not all from our usual big trading partners. We’ve diversified as well. Every country is working hard together.

I thought the statement yesterday was as strong as you could expect it to be. It’s not pretending that there isn’t a challenge or an issue out there. It is saying very clearly that we are reliable friends and supporters of each other.

CHRIS BOWEN: Any other journalists have a question? I’ll come back to you. No, I just want to be fair to everyone.

I’ll always run my press conferences similarly and fairly to everyone. JOURNALIST: Minister, isn’t it increasingly likely the Strait of Hormuz will simply not return to normal as we knew it before the war, and we’re looking likely at far more expensive fuel in the long term? How is Australia placed to cope with that?

CHRIS BOWEN: Yeah, look, as I said on the day that the ceasefire was announced, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It’s positive and encouraging, but a long way to go. And we have not yet seen the Strait of Hormuz opened anywhere near to the extent that we need it to.

So that’s all true, and I’ve said that all the way through. This is not over. Far from it.

We’d rather see the ceasefire than the alternative, so that’s a positive, but there’s still a long way to go. And even if it opened today, there’s a big backlog of ships, there’s been gas plants bombed out of existence. So the international energy situation will take a long time to recover from this.

So I’m basically agreeing that yes, this is going to have a long tail, this crisis. That’s why what we can do in that is focus on the practical policy measures, like the excise cut, like working with Singapore, like the Export Finance Australia deals so that our refiners and importers can go out and get the fuel. And as I said, here we are six weeks in.

Our primary Federal Government responsibility is to ensure the supply of fuel to Australia. Not one ship that we have expected has not turned up. That’s because government and industry are working closely together.

JOURNALIST: There was a report today that airfares and the cost of petrol are expected to stay high even if the war does, I suppose, slow down. With crude oil and aviation fuel going up, can you assure that airfares and the cost of petrol won’t skyrocket in the near future? CHRIS BOWEN: Well, we’re already seeing the cost of petrol and jet fuel and diesel way up internationally, right around the world.

I’m not going to pretend that that’s not happening. No one should. And that, as I said in the answer to the previous question, is going to hang around for a while.

And the best way we can ensure petrol prices come down is this war ends. There is a war on. I think most Australians understand it.

That war has implications. Everyone understands it, I think, except the Opposition, who think there should be some magical wand to stop it all happening. I think Australians understand it’s a very difficult circumstance internationally.

We are as well placed and better prepared than we were, say, with the Ukraine energy crisis. We did much more preparation going into this, and as a result, partly, we’re also seeing the fuel supply being secure to Australia. But no one should suggest, and the Government never has, that this isn’t going to impact on fuel prices, this war, because it has, and it will.

JOURNALIST: We heard from Israel’s ambassador to Australia saying that Israel essentially did not expect Iran to close down the Strait of Hormuz. Are you surprised by that, that they launched a war without expecting some broader repercussions or actions? CHRIS BOWEN: I’m just focused on my job, which is what we’ve been talking about so far.

I’ll leave all that other geopolitical commentary to others. JOURNALIST: In light of fuel still, are you willing to relax sanctions and pressure to try and help ease that? CHRIS BOWEN: Look, I think what we need to do is focus on the supplies of fuel that we’re getting, not only from Southeast Asia but other countries.

We’re getting fuel from South America now, from Algeria. That’s a good thing. We haven’t engaged, and don’t need to engage, with Russia.

JOURNALIST: Can you confirm, obviously in light of fuel costs as well, that there will be immediate cost of living relief in the next Budget? CHRIS BOWEN: The Budget will be, I think it’s the second Tuesday in May. It will be handed down by the Treasurer, not the Energy Minister, and I don’t comment on Cabinet deliberations.

That’s a wrap? Thank you. Beautiful day.

Enjoy Western Sydney. 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.