All six fuel ships cancelled after the outbreak of war in the Middle East have been replaced, Energy Minister Chris Bowen has revealed.
Mr Bowen revealed last week six fuel shipments to Australia due after mid-April have been cancelled or deferred.
A further 74 others – out of a total of 81 – were still expected to arrive.
However, on Thursday, Mr Bowen revealed during question time those six ships had since been replaced.
“Of the six ships we informed the nation that had been cancelled on the weekend, all have been replaced with alternative supplies from alternative countries and at least three other spot cargo offers have been confirmed and on their way to Australia,” Mr Bowen said.
The Energy Minister had previously indicated the fuel situation would become less certain towards the end of April.
Addressing parliament, he revealed how many service stations remained without fuel on Thursday.
In NSW, 178 stations had no diesel, and 48 with no stock at all.
Queensland had 55 with no diesel and 33 with no regular unleaded.
In Victoria, there were 45 stations with no diesel, down by 20, as well as 72 with no unleaded, down 70.
South Australia had nine stations with no diesel and 10 without unleaded, while Western Australia had 40 with no diesel and 14 with no unleaded
Tasmania had five stations with no diesel and nine with some sort of outage.
There were no outages in the Northern Territory “attributable to a lack of fuel supply”, and in the ACT, two were without diesel and one with no unleaded.
“As I said yesterday, I’m advised these shortages in the ACT are typically dealt with within the hour,” Mr Bowen said.
Cost of fuel reserve
Meeting obligations to hold 90 days worth of fuel would cost Australia $20bn over four years, Energy Minister Chris Bowen earlier stated, as criticism grows over the Albanese government’s handling of the fuel crisis.
Of the International Energy Agency’s 32 members, Australia is the only one that does not meet the mandatory fuel reserve requirement. It has failed to meet this threshold for more than a decade.
And with supply disruptions triggered by the Middle East conflict expected to hit Australia in late May, it has sparked fears of the nation’s ability to withstand such a crisis.
But on Thursday Mr Bowen pushed back claims of unpreparedness, saying the IEA obligation had been de-prioritised because of its cost by both Coalition and Labor governments.
“Ninety days is not how much petrol used. It’s a 90-day import, number of 90 import days, and they can be held anywhere and it’s not for domestic supply,” he told the ABC.
“It’s to be able to sell it if things get rough and the IEA asks us to.
“Now, we don’t comply with that. But if we did try to keep 90 days’ worth in Australia, that would cost $20bn over four years.
“That’s $20bn we’re not spending on schools, hospitals or anything like that.
“So that’s a big, big call. There’s a reason why consecutive governments haven’t done the 90 days.
“I think every new energy minister has asked. I certainly did. Why don’t we do 90 days? And you get the advice, well, it’s going to cost $20bn.”
Immediate fuel rationing necessary: Joyce
Earlier, Barnaby Joyce demanded the government start rationing fuel immediately amid fears it would be “too late” to tackle impacts on food production by the time supply shortages hit.
Despite the global energy shocks triggered by the US-Israel war on Iran, the government has insisted that Australia’s fuel supply is secure and it is working with the states to move supplies to areas hit hardest by shortages.
But prices have climbed close to $3 a litre for petrol and diesel in parts of the country, with some bowsers running out of at least one type of fuel altogether.
These localised shortages are due to panic buying, the government has claimed, though there are still fears overseas refineries – which provide fuel to Australia – will be unable to receive shipments from the Middle East due to the conflict.
Emergency fuel conservation measures, including rationing, have not yet been pushed out by the government, but Anthony Albanese is due to convene a national cabinet meeting on Monday during which a national approach to the issue will be considered.
But Mr Joyce warned the shortages already felt in rural and regional Australia would inevitably “ripple through” to big cities like Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.
“It’s going to start with a few sort of peculiarities, like, ‘Isn’t that interesting? I don’t seem to have any eggs today’, and then it’s going to build up and up and up and up,” the One Nation MP told reporters.
“But by the time it arrives, it’s too late. It’s too late because you can’t just shut sections of food production down, then overnight belt them back up again. It doesn’t work like that.
“Therefore you should be having rationing now, and you should be brave enough to say to the Australian people, ‘Look, you’re not going to like this, but you’re going to appreciate it’.
“A plan is better than panic, and panic is where we’re going.”
Taylor urges fuel be directed to empty bowsers
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor also claimed the government needed to do more, saying Labor should force fuel companies to move supplies to empty petrol stations, despite the presence of significant distribution issues across every state.
Mr Taylor blamed the government for the crisis and claimed it was “not doing its job”. He accused the Albanese government of being “sold out” but did not specify to whom.
“The stocks are there. That’s what they keep telling us. They told us that again yesterday,” Mr Taylor told the Today show.
“So move the stocks to the sold-out servos, pick up the phone, speak to the companies, tell them to move the fuel to where the servos are sold out.”
Host Sarah Abo pushed back and asked how the measure could work given distribution problems faced by the states, but Mr Taylor repeated his answer.
He was later asked if Australia should follow in the footsteps of South Korea, which has urged citizens to curb petrol use, take shorter showers, and vacuum only on the weekends.
Well, (they’re) apparently talking about rationing and all these sorts of things, but if we’ve got the fuel stocks and the fuels arriving, the problem seems to be pretty simple,” Mr Taylor said.
“It’s how to move it to those sold-out servos, particularly in NSW.”
‘Need to have a plan’: McKenzie
The example of South Korea was also put to Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie, who was asked if Australia should also implement broader energy-saving measures.
Emergency measures to conserve fuel, including rationing, have not yet been pushed out by the federal government, but Anthony Albanese is due to convene a national cabinet meeting on Monday during which a national approach to the issue will be considered.
“Well that South Korea is implementing a plan. They’ve also got rationing being implemented as well, and different countries are implementing different things,” Senator McKenzie told Today.
“We expect governments of all colours to be competent, to give us confidence that they’ve got their hands on the levers, and they’re doing everything to protect us … this is now having significant impacts.
“Much more broadly, they need to have a plan.”
She also urged Labor to “get the settings right” when managing the impacts of fuel shortages and inflation on the economy.
“The government has all the tools of all the departments at their availability,” she said.
“They’re supposed to have the data. They should be coming up by week four of a crisis, which is what we’re heading into.
“They should have a raft of measures available and critical industry supply, whether it be our ports, agriculture, our transport industry.”
