Press conference, Parliament House, Canberra

MINISTER FOR CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY, CHRIS BOWEN: Well, thanks for coming everyone. Obviously, on Saturday, I issued the normal weekly update for Australians on the fuel supply situation. Given many of you in Canberra wouldn't have made that – didn't make that press conference, I'll just briefly run through that again, because I think it is important information.

We have on hand 38 days’ worth of petrol, which is a very good outcome for Australia. We have 28 days’ worth of jet fuel and 31 days’ worth of diesel, which is up two days. As you will have noticed, these figures haven't moved around all that much over the last month or so.

That's a good thing. That shows that while fuel is getting out the door at record rates across Australia, fuel is also coming in the door at Australia's import terminals. And it's also going out the door at Australia's two refineries, so they’re working full pelt to ensure that supply is kept up for Australians.

In addition, I can confirm we have 57 ships currently on the way to Australia with various types of fuel – crude oil, jet fuel, diesel, and petrol. That's about standard for this time of year, it’s what we would expect – 57 ships on the way to Australia. Also, over the next four weeks, the rolling four-week report, we have 4.1 billion litres of fuel locked in and contracted by Australian companies.

That fuel now belongs to them. It is their legal right to have that fuel, and that is locked in to be delivered to Australia over the next four weeks. I provide these updates to give Australians the latest information and reassurance that, while the international system – situation is very unsure and we are not fully aware – Australians – about how this will play out in coming weeks, obviously, in the Straits of Hormuz and elsewhere, nevertheless, the Government was leaving nothing on the field and working very closely with industry to ensure the security of supply to Australia.

That's what the Prime Minister was doing in Singapore. That's what he'll do further this week – going out and making sure nothing is left on the field to ensure that every possible cargo that is possible to come to Australia comes to Australia to fulfil our needs. We'll continue that work.

We'll continue that engagement. And we'll continue to give these very regular updates to the Australian people about the fuel situation as I've been doing consistently since this situation began. Also, I give you updates on the petrol station situation.

I'll do that again today, now. In New South Wales we have 109 service stations without diesel, that's 4.5 per cent of New South Wales service stations, 16 total stock-out. Victoria 34 with no diesel, 17 with no unleaded.

Queensland 36 with no diesel, 20 with no unleaded. South Australia 4 with no diesel, 17 with no unleaded. Western Australia 7 with no diesel, 23 with no unleaded.

Tasmania 10 with no diesel, 4 with no unleaded. Northern Territory, 4 with no diesel, 2 with no unleaded. The ACT 1 without diesel, and no shortages of unleaded.

That's 205 across the country, which is 2.6 per cent of Australia's service stations without any diesel. Again, I give these updates very regularly. I think that's appropriate to give Australians the best possible information about how we're faring, and it remains the situation.

I'll end on this point: since this war began, not a single cargo that we have expected to arrive in Australia has failed to arrive. Any cancellations of forward orders have been replaced, and more. This is the result of the Federal Government and industry working so closely together every day to ensure that our primary responsibility, which is the security of fuel supply into Australia, is being met.

And we'll keep that up, and I'll keep updating Australians as we go. Phil? JOURNALIST: Minister, Donald Trump's overnight decision to blockade completely the straits, including the ships of allies, have you been able to model or take into account what this- has this thrown your plans out or does that have the potential – Well, we haven't worked on any particular scenario which involves the opening of the Strait of Hormuz.

As I said last week on my press conference – by that I mean, we are not counting on that in terms of scenario planning. What we're doing is continuing to work on the basis that this uncertainty and constraint on supply will continue. Obviously, we hope it doesn't, but we work in terms of prudent planning on the basis that it will.

As I said last week on the day the ceasefire was announced to – some journalists, not unreasonably, seemed pretty excited about that and upbeat, and then I pointed out that there was some way to go here. We couldn't get ahead of ourselves. JOURNALIST: Minister, thanks.

The other part of your important job is COP31. Does the global uncertainty, the war, the fuel shock change the dynamics of that? Any expectation that the atmospherics could be different for COP?

Well, let me say this – in all my discussions with my international colleagues, energy and climate, there isn't one country in the world that said, 'You know what this fuel crisis reminds us, is we need more fossil fuels'. That conversation is not being had anywhere around the world. In fact, countries around the world are saying this underpins and underlines the need to keep going with things like electrification and ensuring renewable energy is an important part of the mix going forward.

Now as I’ve said, our first priority at the moment is concentrating on fuel supply, as it should be. But we've always said too that good climate policy and good energy policy sees emissions come down; sees more of the cheapest form of energy, which is renewables; and, sees this sovereign capability, particularly for Australia, of renewables. I mean, no war can impede the flow of sun to Australia.

No sanctions can be applied to wind. And the sun has to travel 150 million kilometres to Earth – it doesn't have to travel the 150 kilometres of Straits of Hormuz. So, what we can do is work to build resilience and sovereignty at the same time as reducing emissions.

JOURNALIST: Minister Bowen, just to clarify on the prospect of a US blockade, so it hasn't thrown into any doubt your assurances that we will be okay with fuel supply well into May. JOURNALIST: And can I also just ask you for your reaction to Western Australia considering its own strategic fuel reserve? Doesn't that become a bit risky in Australia when one state prioritises itself above the others?

What if others follow suit? I'll deal with both matters. As I've always said, and let me be very clear and repeat again, this is an uncertain international environment with risks all throughout the supply chain.

It was the case on February 28, during my first press conference I held on 1 March, immediately after the bombing of Iran, and remains the case now. However, the facts I just shared with you that I shared on Saturday and repeated there about 57 ships on the way and 4.1 million litres, that's all contracted and in and operating. So, no, the events in the Straits of Hormuz overnight don't change that.

Does it mean ongoing concerns in June and July? Sure. But we'll continue to manage those, and I'll continue to give updates.

In relation to Western Australia, West Australian Government gave us a heads-up that they were planning that, which I appreciate. I think it's appropriate. They have ensured that it's additional supply, so it's not taking off another state.

They have sought and received assurances it's additional supply to Australia, helping them manage. I mean 4 million litres is not a huge amount, but it's material and useful. And I think all states – I welcome all states taking positive action.

And certainly, where a state takes positive action, they’ll have our full support. JOURNALIST: Minister, on the ad campaign that began today, has the Government modelled what impact those measures would have? Like taking off roof racks, lowering the weight, would that do – do you have a sense of what the actual impact that would be on fuel reserves?

And also, what's your response to members of the Liberal Frontbench saying that it's political propaganda, it's just warm and fuzzy messaging? Look, on the modelling, I mean, obviously – and there’s footnotes on the website about where that comes from. Obviously, we do know what sort of impact it has on individual use, so the sorts of things that are talked about.

We haven’t counted on any particular meta-impact in terms of scenario planning, as you know, we certainly – as we’ve been saying all the way along, sensible – if people can do things to reduce fuel they’re using, to do it. And we’re seeing increases in public transport use, for example. I mean, that’s great where people can do that if it’s convenient for them.

It’s not for everyone. But other things which people might not be so aware of, like tyre pressure and roof racks, it’s just useful community information that we encourage people to look at. If it suits you, take it up, by all means.

On the Opposition, I’d just say this: since this situation began, the Opposition’s had the chance to step up and be serious, constructive players, and they haven’t. I mean, we’ve not seen – I’ve been dealing with all sorts of proposals to improve fuel supply in Australia – not one of them has come from the Opposition. Have you heard a single constructive suggestion from the Opposition on fuel supply?

You haven’t. They’ve chosen pot-shots over policies, insults over ideas, and sledging over solutions. They’re just playing politics, and that says a lot about them, frankly – I say sadly – under Angus Taylor’s leadership.

There’s a chance to work with government as we did with the Morrison government during COVID. We had some criticisms, we had plenty of constructive suggestions, we gave support to controversial decisions. It’s a very different tone from Angus Taylor and Dan Tehan – a matter for them, but unfortunate.

JOURNALIST: Minister, in April 2020 when Labor was in opposition, Anthony Albanese blasted the then-government for not having 90 days of fuel in reserve, saying it was unacceptable. Why haven’t Labor been able to pull that off in government? So what we’ve done is two major things: require the fuel reserves to be held in Australia, which was not the situation when Anthony made that comment.

It was held in Texas. We changed that. There was existing legislation, to be fair, but it hadn’t been implemented.

I was the minister who signed that regulation into law to require the fuel reserves to be held in Australia. That’s been vital. When I released 20 per cent of those reserves, it flowed from Brisbane and from Geelong and other smaller storage around Australia into regional Australia, with some small delays to get it to where it needed, but not as long as we would have had to wait for it to get on a ship from Texas, which is a month.

So we fixed that. Secondly, we've acted to ensure that two refineries remain in Australia. When we came back to office, we found two refineries.

There had been six when we left office in 2013. While Angus Taylor was energy minister and Matt Canavan was resources minister, they sat by and watched those refineries close. Now, they did take action on the last two and we've cemented that action and locked that in, and that's the situation we inherited.

And as a result, we now have much higher fuel supplies in Australia where we need them than what we inherited. JOURNALIST: Are you still aiming for 90 days in reserve, Minister? I've made clear that obviously when we get through this situation we'll look at what sensibly can be done.

But I do point out that 90 days held in Australia would be a cost of $20 billion over four years. The Liberal Party complains about public spending being too high. That's a very significant cost.

JOURNALIST: Minister, you sort of alluded to a bit earlier about how the situation has driven a push for renewables, for electric vehicles. How has this crisis changed the government’s thinking about the urgency of moving to a road user charge? And in your position as Climate Change Minister, would you like to see any road user charge maintained?

How important is it to see any road user charge maintain that incentive for electric vehicles over internal combustion? I'll just say this – I mean, I refer you to what Catherine King said yesterday, she put it very well. These conversations are ongoing.

We've been very clear that a road user charge as a destination is a very important thing. Getting it right is also important. Those conversations in government continue.

We need to get it right. So that's always been our view, that we need to get it right. This particular international crisis doesn't change that.

It needs to be a policy development process which is not only done in due course, but done directly. That might take some time to work through, but we'll continue to work that through. JOURNALIST: Does getting it right for you imply that electric vehicles will be taxed at a lower rate than internal… Well, getting it right of course implies that we should continue to see strong take-up for those electric vehicles, for those who wish to take them up.

JOURNALIST: Minister, it's been nearly a month since the government announced the Fuel Supply Taskforce, yet there's been no images, no visibility of how it's operating as a workspace. Why? Oh, because it's a bureaucratic – an important, but a bureaucratic organisation which works across government and with state governments, meeting daily, on the sorts of things that departments need to work together with.

And they're doing that and they're doing good work supporting me, supporting the Prime Minister, supporting the other ministers like Julie Collins and Catherine King on the task before us. JOURNALIST: Sorry, Chris, could we just pick up the 90 day question? Because the PM was reluctant the week before last to go for 90 days, even though it was your policy in the 2019 election, and the Liberals opposed it then on the basis of cost.

But is it something you could make provision for? I mean, it's $5 billion a year, as you said, to get it back up there. Well, as I said, our immediate priority is focused on… JOURNALIST: [Interrupts] Sure, but I'm talking – sort of so we don't run into this in another… We're not making further announcements today.

But obviously, as I said, and as I think Catherine King said yesterday, we'll always look at sensible things in due course to ensure our ongoing resilience, and that should include everything. It should include continued efforts for electrification. I mean, the number of EVs on the road at the moment is high in terms of sales but still pretty modest in terms of the percentage of the fleet.

But it's taking pressure off petrol use and diesel use already. Materially, not significantly yet, but materially. That's 15 million litres we have available for the farmers that we wouldn't have if people driving EVs were driving diesel and petrol cars, for example.

So that work should continue and will continue under us. We should continue to- you know, we'll always look at sensible proposals in relation to domestic capability, whether it be resource extraction or storage, but it's part of a broader suite. And this is not about – some people want to make this about a culture war.

You know, trying to egg the government into a culture war being anti-this or pro-that. We will continue to do it all when it comes to improving Australia's energy resilience, and that does include continued efforts on electrification and renewable energy, as well as sensible measures on storage and extraction. But that's a medium to longer term priority for the government.

At the moment, we're focused on ensuring we get through this uncertain international [indistinct] … JOURNALIST: [Talks over] Just on… We'll do a similar circuit. JOURNALIST: Sounds good. Everyone gets a fair go at my press conferences.

It's a rule of mine. JOURNALIST: Just on Australia's self-sufficiency, you just mentioned resource extraction. What more do you have to do for our existing refineries beyond investing in those refineries?

Do we need another refinery altogether? What more can you do with green tape or exploration, et cetera? Well, what we’ve done is lock in those two refineries.

I made the announcement a couple of weeks ago now in Brisbane, to make it easier for them to access the Fuel Security Services Payment. Not increase it, but make it easier for them to access. That’s been vital to their continued operations.

I’ve said that we will – we are having further discussions with them about the post-2030 environment. That work will continue. I say again, no refinery will close under the Albanese Government.

In terms of other proposals, I’m not aware of any particular proposals at the moment for new refineries. The economics would have to stack up. To be fair to everyone, I mean, one of the reasons Australian refineries have struggled, it’s not about climate change or anything else.

Over the years, it's been scale. Competing with much larger refineries overseas, it's been scale. That's been the challenge.

JOURNALIST: Hasn't it also been investment settings, though? We’re also saying – but, yes, the existing refineries had trouble competing against much bigger refineries overseas. That's what's been going on here.

JOURNALIST: When it comes to 90 day reserve or expanding the reserve in general, it seems like the government is keen to push that until after this conflict is done and dealing with the immediate problem. But obviously conflict in the Middle East can go for a very long time, as we've seen. Is it something that would considerably happen while the conflict… I'm just making this point.

You don't do policy on the run of press conferences. As we have done, we've worked carefully through. There's a budget coming up.

There's other fiscal events. We'll work those things carefully through. JOURNALIST: Minister, you've been in power though for four years and this is something that you were pushing before you came to power.

So it's not – arguably, it's not policy on the run, it's something that you suggested a long time ago. The question is why hasn't it come to… And that's why we've done what we've done, like bringing the fuel reserves to Australia. Like making a requirement under law to hold fuel reserves in Australia, which was not the case until 2023.

We came to office in 2022. I acted pretty quickly in the greater scheme of things to do that, and that was – that's an important step. As I said, it hadn't happened until then and we'd seen those four refineries close.

So you know, if I was the Liberal Party, I'd stay pretty quiet on these matters hoping nobody would remember the record of seeing four refineries close, and you know, the big great revelation that they'd hold fuel reserves in Texas. I guess, to his credit, Angus Taylor did last week. He could have – should have done more.

JOURNALIST: Of those 57 ships that are on their way, do you have an idea of how much of that fuel will go into topping up reserves or will it be going straight into circulating through the market? Well, it's always a combination. It goes to the refineries and the import terminals and then it replaces – so fuel then comes out of what's been stored, because you've got to turn the fuel over, you can't just leave petrol in a tank for years in a storage tank, it's got to be moved through.

So, they move that fuel out and top it up with the fuel coming in. As I said, 57 ships is about standard because a ship doesn't take long to get from Singapore to Australia or Malaysia to Australia. So that's about standard what we'd expect in this process.

I’ll stay on this side, being fair to everyone. JOURNALIST: Minister, have you received any requests from any of our Pacific partners for assistance in securing fuel supply? And what's Australia's role in helping in that situation?

I'm in regular contact with my Pacific minister colleagues, but I haven't received any specific requests. We're talking about the situation. That's true, but I haven't received any specific requests.

JOURNALIST: But what's our role? Is there an expectation? Well, our role is if we receive a request, we'll consider it.

I haven't received it. JOURNALIST: Just on the advertising campaign, there's been criticism of that $20 million figure. You speak about it quite – there's suggestions, there's advice, it's not a mandate or anything.

Do you think $20 million is justified against what is [indistinct] advice? Yeah, I do. And when you say people criticise it, well, the opposition has.

Correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't heard others. I've only heard the opposition in their negative mindset, you know, who just have never missed an opportunity to be negative about anything in this situation. More focused on social media than the needs of the Australian people, is Mr Taylor and Mr Tehan, I'm afraid.

I haven't seen any constructive suggestions and they just criticised everything. Not a single positive word. Okay, that's a matter for them.

I think the Australian people are looking for stability and leadership in a situation like this and that applies to both government and opposition. We've been providing it. Our friends in the opposition have not.

JOURNALIST: When it comes to demand, has the government observed any drop in demand since the Prime Minister’s address to the nation? We're certainly seeing demand stabilise and return to more normal levels over time. Still very high.

We're still seeing a lot of demand for diesel in regional Australia, but a lot of that is seeding and sowing as well. And if you look around over Easter, I did observe Australians were active and doing things, and that really was the Prime Minister's message. Keep going about your business, do what you would like to do at Easter and beyond, but be sensible about it.

I think Australians have taken that message well. JOURNALIST: Have you personally taken any of the advice in the ads or ads or changed anything about your own electricity- energy usage? Famously, I drive an EV, so it's a bit hard for me to reduce my petrol use because it's already zero, and obviously – so that's effectively the answer to that.

I didn't get away at Easter. I was planning to, but that was because of my work responsibilities. I stayed at home and worked.

But that was, I think, appropriate for the energy minister at that point. Any last goes? JOURNALIST: Does the government have to roll out these campaigns before we're at work to consider fuel rationing?

Is this part of the process? Well, I'd refer you to the four stages, and we're currently stage two. And, you know, I don't envisage any movement away from stage two.

But stage three is about, you know, voluntary measures. And really what we're doing in this, even though we're in stage 2, is just really sort of maximising, one, giving Australian information about the stages. You can look at the ads, there's information about the stages, where we’re at.

I think Australians – in my feedback, as I move around the country, people have really valued that, and that's good. And then in addition you have the tips, if you like, the encouragement. That makes sense.

And I think it's just part of the process. So, it's not a necessary precursor to anything in terms of stages. It's just a sense of...

JOURNALIST: [Interrupts] It's part of the process. It's part of the process of governments informing people about what is obviously a very topical matter. So don't read process into stage changes.

That's not what I meant. I mean, it's part of the process of a government doing its job, communicating with Australian people. Alright, last one.

JOURNALIST: Just on the stockpiling question, why wait until after the crisis is over – as you say, we don't know how long that's going to last – as opposed to make changes during the crisis. Well, because – I mean, you don't build more storage overnight, they’re very big. I mean, there aren't sort of storage tanks sitting out there waiting to be filled.

Don't get me wrong, the government is always involved in considerations, budget considerations and other considerations about further measures. JOURNALIST: So, we could see it in the budget? Well, the government's always involved in considerations about further measures, but that's not what I'm announcing today, and I won't be announcing tomorrow.

JOURNALIST: Just an addendum to the last question, but is it the case… That's very cheeky. JOURNALIST: Is it a case of, the ongoing electrification of the light vehicle fleet will mitigate against having to go get to 90 days? It could be a combination of more… Well, I mean, as I said, 15 million litres are already being avoided by using EVs.

Relatively – in the greater scheme of things, EV sales are very high, but it’s still a percentage of the fleet, as people hold on their car for 15, 17 years. You know, that's how long a car generally stays on the road. It takes a while before – it’s a stop and flow issue.

JOURNALIST: It could be a bit of both. So obviously, if you have more – I mean, I think this is pretty sort of, should be uncontroversial thing to say. I don't know.

Some of the opposition might find it controversial. But if you have more electrification of transport, that's less pressure on fuel supplies and more fuel to those who aren’t in a position to get an EV yet. And I think and I think that's a good thing.

So, yes, it's part of the suite of approaches. You know, you can be talking about electrification, you can be talking about renewable energy, you can be talking about fuel storage, you can be talking about securing supply, that's what we're doing. PM, me, the whole team.

A good place to end. Thanks guys. 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.