The essential query Anthony Albanese’s authorities cannot reply: ‘Will Australians run out of gas?’
The Labor government is facing questions over whether Australia will run out of fuel amid fears for supplies in the wake of the Middle East crisis.
Motorists are paying more at the petrol bowser, while some regional towns have already run out of fuel due to the global oil price hike.
Meanwhile, Climate Minister Chris Bowen told parliament on Thursday he could not guarantee Australia would avoid a fuel shortage, declaring a national crisis and advancing plans to release fuel from the strategic reserve.
Appearing on Seven’s Sunrise on Friday, Health Minister Mark Butler was asked by host Nat Barr: ‘Will Australians run out of fuel?’
Instead of confirming or denying, Butler offered a non-committal response without directly addressing the concerns.
‘Well, we’ve been working really hard over the last few years preparing for a situation just like this,’ he said.
‘We have more fuel on hand than we have had at any time in the last 15 years.
‘Ships are still arriving.
‘Indeed, we put new laws through Parliament in November to get better transparency – a better line of sight by governments around these fuel stockholdings. And bizarrely, the Liberal Party voted against those arrangements.’
Meanwhile resources minister is heading to Japan for talks with her global counterparts about shoring up fuel supplies in the face of oil market chaos.
The price of brent crude, the US oil benchmark, surged to more than $100 a barrel on Friday (AEDT) amid reports Iran had been laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz – a key trade route for oil from the region.
Resources Minister Madeleine King said she would meet her counterparts from the US, Japan, South Korea, Timor Leste and other countries at the Indo-Pacific Energy Security Forum, where petrol and diesel supplies would be on the agenda.
‘I’m hoping to achieve good discussions about where everyone else is sitting in addressing the fuel supply or demand issues they’re facing in their countries,’ she told ABC TV on Friday morning.
King said boosting supplies of critical minerals and rare earths – used in electric vehicle batteries, smartphones and sensitive defence technologies – would also be discussed.
Asked if Australia could face broader fuel shortages if the conflict drags on for more than a few weeks, King conceded the longer the war continued, the harder it would be for the global economy.
‘The ripple effects of such conflict reach everybody’s shores, including Australia’s,’ she said.
The federal government has relaxed quality standards for the next 60 days to boost the domestic market with an extra 100 million litres of fuel per month, allowing fuel with higher levels of sulphur to be used.
Quality levels will still remain very high by international standards, the government said.
More to come.
Seven host Nat Barr asked Health Minister Mark Butler on Friday whether Australians will run out of fuel. But he failed to offer a direct answer
Motorists are paying more at the petrol bowser, while many regional towns have already run out of fuel due to the global oil price hike
