Source: Prime Minister of Australia
KARA COOK, MEMBER FOR BONNER: Good morning everyone and welcome to the Ampol Lytton Refinery. My name is Kara Cook, I’m the local Federal Member here, and it’s my great pleasure to welcome Prime Minister Anthony Albanese here, and of course Minister Chris Bowen as well. We’ve just had a wonderful tour of the facility. This is a really important facility in my electorate employing almost 1,000 people on site at the moment, and also of course really important nationally as one of only two refineries across the country. I’d like to introduce Matt Halliday who is the CEO of Ampol to say a few words.
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< ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA:
But today as well we have an important announcement, which is that last week we were able to pass through the Parliament the fuel security powers to allow EFA, Export Finance Australia, to be able to give the underwriting of companies to be able to go out there and source additional fuel for Australia’s supply. And today I can announce that Export Finance Australia have agreed to terms with our two largest suppliers, Viva Energy, of course, based in Geelong, and Ampol based right here, to enable them to bring more fuel to Australia. This is not business as usual. Importantly, this is additional supply here in Australia that they will be able to source. And as part of this agreement, of course, the Government can direct where that supply goes. So, that particularly going to regional Australia and areas that are under pressure in terms of supply.
This is an important announcement today and it comes on the back of yesterday’s announcement of a two-week ceasefire. We want to say this, that this is an important step forward. Of course it is a fragile peace, but we want it to lead to an agreement. The Australian Government also firmly believes that this has to apply to Lebanon as well. We want to see peace in this region and it will make a difference. And I know that many Australians are concerned about the events that are occurring in Lebanon. This is a matter of not just the impact there, but the impact that it’s having right around the world. So, yesterday was an important agreement. We want to see it pursued. But the pressures, of course, as we have said, an end to the conflict, even if it is a permanent end of the conflict that we want to see, doesn’t mean that Straits of Hormuz reopened and that it’s back to business as usual. This will have a long tail, which is why after this we will travel to Singapore. I’m looking forward to a constructive meeting with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong tomorrow. This is an important relationship. We have spent four years building relationships in our region, particularly with ASEAN leaders. Prime Minister Wong and Singapore, the relationship that we have is a critical one, and of course Singapore is a major supplier of fuel to Australia. So, I’m looking forward to that tomorrow. And I’d ask Minister Bowen to make some comments and we’ll take a few questions.
< CHRIS BOWEN, MINISTER FOR CLIMATE CHANGE & ENERGY:
Can I just also give you, as I do every day, my daily update on service station outages. In New South Wales, we continue to make good progress. Today, 112 service stations without diesel. That’s down 12 on yesterday. This is part of an ongoing trend where we’re seeing the number of servos without diesel come down each and every day. This is particularly pleasing against the backdrop of Easter, where obviously a lot of people were moving around, demand was up. Ampol’s demand for fuel was up 30 per cent on the Easter before, similar with Viva. But nevertheless, we’ve been able to work with the industry to see those deliveries to service stations, particularly in regional New South Wales, which is where the biggest pressure has been, because rightly, everyone’s been prioritising farmers who are getting their seeds into the ground. So, 112 in New South Wales, 24 total stock out. That’s down also on yesterday. Victoria – 43 without diesel, 26 with no unleaded. Queensland – 32 without diesel, 23 with no unleaded. South Australia – 4 and 5. Western Australia – 11 and 20. Tasmania – 8 and 6. Northern Territory – 4 without diesel, 6 without unleaded. And the ACT – 2 without diesel, no service stations without unleaded.
So, again, as I’ve said before, a big shout out to everyone who’s working very hard. I know Ampol’s increased its truck fleet, as has Viva, by around 20 per cent, just to get more fuel to the places it needs to be. In this very difficult period where we’ve seen continued high demand, particularly for diesel, continued elevated purchasing of fuel, we need to keep up with that demand by increasing supply. That’s exactly what we’re doing. And the announcement today that we are now have an agreement with Viva and Ampol, with other agreements we’ll advance. There are other agreements EFA has well advanced that are progressing through the system and the Prime Minister and I will have more to say about that when those agreements are finalised. But they’re very well advanced. But importantly, Australia’s two biggest players now have these agreements locked in. They can go out and do the right thing by Australia now, get that fuel for Australians. Thanks very much.
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