Press conference, Fairfield West, New South Wales

MINISTER FOR CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY, CHRIS BOWEN: Thanks for coming everyone. Now, since I began these Saturday press conferences over five months ago, two things have remained consistent. The international system has been volatile and unpredictable, and Australia’s fuel security has remained stable and solid.

And that situation remains. Government and industry working together, hand-in-glove, to ensure fuel security for Australians. Today, I can update that Australia has 42 days worth of petrol, 36 days worth of diesel, 34 days worth of jet fuel.

Total stock holdings in Australia at just over 6 billion litres, 42 ships on the way to Australia with fuel, and 3 billion litres locked in to be delivered over the next four weeks. All these figures broadly consistent with previous updates. Figures moving around just a little bit, but broadly consistent and providing Australians with the reassurance that fuel security in Australia remains solid, remains strong.

Others said shortages were inevitable. Others said rationing was inevitable. That’s what the Liberals and the Nationals said.

One Nation called for rationing. We had the view that a calmer, more sensible approach would ensure fuel security for Australians. That’s exactly what we’ve been doing for the last five months, and that’s exactly what we’ll continue to do for however long this international crisis continues.

Happy to take questions, I think the questions today are all on the phone. JOURNALIST: Hello, Amanda Copp from Nine here. Just on the fuel issue, you talk a lot up there about fuel security, but I think most households would be looking at fuel prices, that’s jumped up to over $2 a litre which is kind of where we were before- when this crisis first began anyways.

So what are you going to do to make sure people can actually afford petrol at the pump? MINISTER BOWEN: Well Amanda, one slight disagreement with you. Yes, of course petrol is more expensive than we’d like it to be because of the international crisis, but prices are about 50 cents less now than at the time that the Government took the decision to half fuel excise.

And that remains the case even after the fuel excise has returned to normal levels over the last week. So we made it clear that this relief was vital, but temporary, to ensure Australians will get through the worst of the international fuel crisis when it comes to fuel prices. Our other work on cost of living relief continues with enormous focus from the Government.

Tax cut for every Australian on the July 1. Cheaper medicines, cheaper prescriptions, free TAFE, paid prac, Cheaper Home Batteries. All these policies provide real cost of living relief to Australians across the board every single day, and we’ll continue to focus very strongly on cost of living relief.

JOURNALIST: Just on the other big focus for a lot of households, house prices at the moment, we're looking at auction rates just falling through the floor. First home buyers are not taking advantage of some of those lower prices. They're not borrowing.

Rents are going up. Is this an indication that your policies on tax reform when it comes to housing have not done what you said they'll do? MINISTER BOWEN: I think that Australians understand that you need housing policies for the long term.

Housing figures will move around week to week, month to month, there'll be all sorts of implications leading to those movements. But there is a key difference here. The Government had the view and has the view that real change was necessary because first home buyers were not getting a fair shot.

Liberals and Nationals, One Nation are happy with the status quo. They're happy with the situation where investors were getting a leg up and first home buyers, people trying to be first home buyers, were not getting a fair shot. We were not happy with that.

We won't- we remain unhappy with that, hence, we have delivered real change. Now, not every first home buyer is in an opportunity to take that offer up straight away. They're out looking at houses.

But over time, first home buyers need better shots, better chances. Looking at young people in Australia today, many parents and grandparents look at them and think, how on earth will our kids have a chance to buy into the housing market? And they're right.

And the government needed to fix it. This government's delivered real change. The party's opposing us, the coalition of One Nation, the Liberals, and the Greens are happy the status quo.

Happy with first home buyers being frozen out. We're not. Other journalists on the phone?

JOURNALIST: Minister, it's Josh Martin from 7NEWS. A lot of the debate this week has been on cutting migration. But is the government doing enough and have successive governments done enough to encourage Australians to have children?

The amount of families eligible for the family tax benefit has fallen to 42 per cent in the latest tax figures that are available. Would the government look at incentivising Australians to have children? MINISTER BOWEN: I think the decision to have a child is an extremely personal one for a couple and they'll consider a range of factors.

Obviously Tony Burke is working very hard to ensure our migration settings are correct and he'll have more to say, but in relation to childbirth and birth rates, Australian couples are making those decisions every day and they are highly personal decisions. JOURNALIST: Could you confirm the delay in Tony Burke's speech was to make the measures tougher? MINISTER BOWEN: No, Tony Burke will make announcements when he's ready.

JOURNALIST: Minister, it's Harnsle from Channel 10. A couple of other issues. How concerned are you by reports that Australians owe about $2 billion in child support MINISTER BOWEN: Deeply concerned.

The level of unpaid child support in Australia is utterly unacceptable. It's deeply offensive to those parents bringing up kids. That's why in the budget we invested tens of millions of dollars in improved child support collection.

That's why we changed the rules to make it more automatic, that you can't go overseas if you owe more than $10,000 of child support debt and have travelled recently. We expect around 3000 more travel prohibition orders to follow as a result of those policy changes. So the message is simple.

Don't be a deadbeat, pay your fair share. Pay your child support. Parenting, whether the couple is still together or not, is a joint operation.

And if you've got child support debt, pay it, or the government will make sure that you pay it. JOURNALIST: And on another matter, the Morrison-era GST deal is expected to cost about $60 billion by the end of the decade. We're expecting a Productivity Commission report into it sometime next week.

Is it time to revisit the arrangement? MINISTER BOWEN: The government will always take advice of the various bodies that look at the distribution of GST. And GST will never not be controversial.

There will always be states who say they don't get enough, basically, and fair enough, that's their job, to argue the best for their state. The Commonwealth's job is to come up with a fair system. There's a question here, I think, in person.

I'll go to that. JOURNALIST: One Nation is celebrating the opening of an office in Andrew Hastie’s seat in Canning. Does this further legitimise them becoming recognised as a real political threat, not just a Coalition [Indistinct]?

MINISTER BOWEN: Well One Nation can run a candidate against Andrew Hastie. We'll be having a Labor candidate who we'll be supporting. What we'll be focused on is delivery, delivery, delivery of real change.

One Nation can focus on their issues. We'll be focused on the delivery of real change for Australians, real cost of living relief for Australians. We won't be getting up and bagging Australian workers like Pauline Henson does and attacking Australians.

I'm not quite sure how you can say you love Australia but hate Australians, when you bag workers, and say Australian workers are lazy, and attack mums for maternity leave as One Nation's doing. We're not going to do that. We're going to focus on real relief for Australians, real change, and that’s what we'll be doing over the next two years and what we'll be putting to the Australian people in a couple of years' time.

JOURNALIST: Minister, Stephanie- am I allowed to go? MINISTER BOWEN: Yep, you're alright. JOURNALIST: Thank you, Minister, Stephanie from the ABC.

We all but knew that David Brat was going to be the next ambassador here in Australia representing the US but he's officially been signed in now overnight. What do you make of that confirmation that David Brat will be the US ambassador here in Australia? MINISTER BOWEN: Well, we welcome the appointment of David Brat as the ambassador to Australia, we welcome the appointment of a permanent ambassador.

It's important. I was just speaking to Australia's ambassador to the United States yesterday, the bilateral relationship is of course a deeply important one and we welcome the appointment of the new ambassador. JOURNALIST: What do you make of the fact the position had been vacant for the past two years?

MINISTER BOWEN: That's pretty standard. It's not unusual for an administration to do that, so we welcome his appointment. JOURNALIST: But two years?

That’s standard to have no one for two years? MINISTER BOWEN: Well, yeah, it's- a big gap is not uncommon. The US Embassy has been working here very strongly over the last two years with a charge d'affaires, an acting ambassador, and we welcome the appointment of a permanent ambassador.

Okay, that sounds like a wrap. JOURNALIST: Sorry, one more Minister. MINISTER BOWEN: One more?

Okay. JOURNALIST: Just having technical issues. MINISTER BOWEN: That's fine.

JOURNALIST: Viva and Nestle are both calling on the Government to pass long awaited plastic recycling mandates. They say this is part of ensuring onshore capability Do you expect the government will pass the rules this term? MINISTER BOWEN: We're certainly working very hard with the states.

We have done a lot of work on plastics reform, getting rid of single-use plastics with the states. We're examining further measures, mandates. We'll do that cooperatively with the states.

Murray Watt has that as a focus. I'll leave him to update further on timelines, but it is a priority. All right.

Last one. JOURNALIST: Sorry. This is in your portfolio though, I assure you.

You've launched a review into the safeguard mechanism this week. What's the aim of that review? What are you trying to achieve there?

MINISTER BOWEN: So this was a review that we announced when we made the changes in 2023, that we would review the safeguard reforms in 2026, after we had three years' worth of data, to see how it's gone. Now, I think it's been pretty effective. It’s reduced emissions by the equivalent of a third of Australia's domestic aviation each and every year.

That's good. It's been strong for industry, it's provided industry with the certainty they need to invest, industry has welcomed that. So I think the scheme's working pretty well, but inevitably after three years it's time to examine whether it could be working even better, to examine the settings, that's why I issued a discussion paper yesterday on some of the issues.

That, as I said, is not a new decision. We announced in 2023 we would do that, and now we're just getting on with it. JOURNALIST: And Minister, one more as a Sydney MP, is the Government at all concerned about the level of delays at Sydney Airport?

Airlines for Australia and New Zealand say it understands that Airservices Australia is struggling with staff and that this is the third day in a row there have been challenges. Are you aware of that? MINISTER BOWEN: I've seen some reports, but I'm not aware of any particular detail.

Obviously, I'm sure Sydney Airport's doing their best to manage the situation. And obviously, congestion will be further relieved with the opening of Western Sydney Airport in just a few weeks' time. 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.