Interview with FIVEAA Breakfast, Adelaide

Transcript, E&OE Subjects: Fuel supply; refinery capacity; Labor Party conference; political donations. 28 July 2026 Will Goodings, Host: Let's talk to a South Australian Senator, the Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who joins us on FiveAA Breakfast. Australia and Singapore having signed a new Protocol on Economic Resilience and Essential Supplies. It's a mouthful but essentially means that it guarantees us in this current context, the supply of fuel among global disruption, among other things.

Foreign Minister, good morning to you. Penny Wong, Minister for Foreign Affairs: Good morning, good morning to you both. It's really good to be with you and yes, it is a bit of a mouthful, the name, but what it means is that it's an agreement where we agree that we'll give each other priority when it comes to trade in fuel and trade in other goods such as food.

And so I always say to the Southeast Asian economies and to the North Asian economies, what you give us as fuel comes back to you as food, as dairy, as beef, as wheat, and we've both got an interest in making sure that continues. And this is all part of the Government working to secure the diesel, petrol, jet fuel and fertiliser we need now and into the future.

I was reading your comments and that of your Singaporean counterparts, with interest, the strength of the comments. And I was thinking about it in the context of the consternation there was in Australia at the outset of the conflict in the Middle East about our strategic fuel reserve, and how we failed to meet international standards and whether that would leave us exposed.

Do you now believe, given what's transpired, that we here in Australia have a blueprint now to navigate fuel supply disruption through international agreement and alliances and so forth that reduces the importance of physical fuel reserves here in Australia? Foreign Minister: Look, that's a really good question. And you're right.

You know, when this all started, we faced a situation where four out of six refineries had closed under the previous government and there was a concern about Australia's vulnerability. And one of the things we did was leaned into the relationships we have built and deepened and strengthened over the time we've been in government with Singapore, with Korea, with China, with Japan and with India and also with Indonesia to secure the fuel and fertiliser Australia needs.

And we did come through this conflict, I think, in a very good place. And so you're right, it is a blueprint for how we assure our resilience and make sure Australians can keep getting the fuel and fertiliser the country needs. But it's not enough.

We have to do more onshore as well. And that's why you've seen the Prime Minister announce how we're looking to support a new refinery in Australia, because we do want to have more sovereign capacity, more domestic capacity as well. So, you need both.

Can we clarify something that sits firmly within your purview as Foreign Minister? The Labor conference has just transpired here, obviously, in Adelaide. The National Platform was updated as it pertains to Israel and Palestine.

Some of the language was changed with regard to whether the Hamas terrorist group should disarm. That was removed from the National Platform. Is it still Australian Federal Government policy that Hamas should disarm?

Foreign Minister: It is. And in fact, the platform does refer to the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council that require the demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip. And Hamas, having no role in the governance of Gaza and also reform of the Palestinian authorities.

But it was explicit before. Foreign Minister: We refer to the resolutions which set out those conditions. I would make the point, I thought it was one of the most moving moments in the conference that we had a Labor Member of Palestinian heritage and a Member of Jewish heritage together moving the resolution in relation to Palestine and Israel.

And you know, we know that we've had a lot of division in our country, a lot of anger. And this was a moment which spoke to social cohesion and spoke to Australians coming together on what has been an intractable problem. And so I have enormous respect for Josh Burns and Basem Abdo for what they did at conference and what they said to our party and about our party and country.

Stacey Lee, Host: Minister, in your role as Foreign Minister, you deal with the issue of foreign interference a lot and have spoken about it quite regularly. With that in mind, was it appropriate that the Prime Minister attend a fundraiser by a Chinese billionaire at Point Piper? Foreign Minister: I don't see how that is - well, firstly, we have very strong rules against foreign interference.

We have legislation that goes to the interference of foreign entities in Australia. I think it's very important though, we draw a distinction between that and people who are Australian citizens that might be of different heritages. That's the first point.

The second is Prime Minister has addressed this, and all donations are disclosed in accordance with electoral laws. So, you're comfortable with them being accepted, though? Foreign Minister: Political parties engage in fundraising, all political parties do.

And we have been very clear about the need to be more transparent and disclose at lower levels of disclosure, make sure people disclose for lower amounts. We've lowered the threshold, so we'll continue to do that. Yes, but this is from someone who is – their family's facing an allegation of deceiving the Australian Tax Office.

This is a totally different. I was just going to say this is – we're not talking about, you know, low level donations that we're not sure of the origins of. The origin of this one's clear, is it not?

Foreign Minister: I'm not going to comment on allegations that are going through whatever legal processes. What I would say is the Prime Minister's addressed this. He does attend a lot of dinners, as he said, and any donation will be disclosed appropriately.

But are you comfortable with the fact that the optics – can you accept that the optics of this don't look good? Even if nothing improper occurred and the donations from the Chinese billionaire are going to be declared in accordance of the rules? Foreign Minister: Stacey, we've tried to reform electoral laws to change the way in which the system works.

There's obviously been a lot that hasn't been able to be done, for constitutional and other reasons, in the way that people might want. So, we are in a world where political parties will still fundraise and are still required to fundraise from the private sector, and we will disclose those donations in accordance with the law. Okay, Minister, thanks for your time.