Portfolio — 13 April 2026

Minister Bowen's 13 April media release centres on fuel supply management under the ongoing Strait of Hormuz disruption, delivering a snapshot that shows modest week-on-week improvement while flagging a localised distribution shortfall. Australia holds 38 days of petrol, 28 days of jet fuel, and 31 days of diesel — the diesel figure up two days from the prior week — with 57 ships currently in transit carrying crude oil and refined products [TA-260413-climat-d7eba60d8f29].

Over the rolling four-week contracting window, 4.1 billion litres are locked in for delivery, legally belonging to importers and scheduled to arrive [TA-260413-climat-d7eba60d8f29]. Against that reasonably stable national picture, 205 service stations across all fuel types — 2.6 per cent of the national network — are reporting stock-outs, with New South Wales carrying the highest absolute count at 109 outlets without diesel.

The Minister confirmed that since the conflict began no expected cargo has failed to arrive, and any cancelled forward orders have been substituted with replacement supply.

The government's operational posture, which traces back to legislative and excise measures introduced in the prior weeks, explicitly assumes the Strait of Hormuz constraint is durable rather than temporary. Scenario planning does not rely on the strait reopening; instead, the approach combines direct engagement with international counterparts and regular public updates to calibrate community expectations on price and availability.

On structural supply resilience, Minister Bowen pointed to three concurrent levers: the 20-million-litre fuel reserve requirement in place since 2023, the continued operation of Australia's two remaining refineries, and EV uptake now displacing an estimated 15 million litres of petrol and diesel demand annually [TA-260413-climat-d7eba60d8f29]. A decision on whether to lift the strategic reserve target to 90 days was deferred, pending budget deliberation and further policy development — leaving the reserve quantum as the most consequential open question in the government's medium-term posture.

The Minister used the crisis explicitly to advance the government's energy transition framing, arguing that no country has read the Strait of Hormuz disruption as a signal to increase fossil fuel dependence, and that solar and wind — immune to supply-chain and geopolitical disruption — are the instruments through which Australia builds energy sovereignty while cutting emissions [TA-260413-climat-d7eba60d8f29].

This cross-portfolio argument fuses the immediate fuel security brief with the longer-run climate portfolio logic: the disruption becomes, in the government's framing, evidence for accelerating the transition rather than defending the incumbent fuel import model.

On intergovernmental dynamics, Minister Bowen welcomed Western Australia's announcement of a 4-million-litre state-level strategic fuel reserve, characterising it as additive supply that draws nothing from other states' allocations, and signalled openness to similar action by any jurisdiction [TA-260413-climat-d7eba60d8f29]. The endorsement is notable for legitimising state-level reserve-building as a complement to the deferred federal 90-day target decision.

The Minister also defended a $20-million government advertising campaign covering fuel-efficiency advice and the four-stage fuel resilience framework, characterising Opposition criticism of the spend as politically motivated in the absence of any constructive supply-side policy proposal from that quarter.