Source: Prime Minister of Australia
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: I’m very pleased to be here in Brunei on my first official visit, and there’s no more important time to engage with our neighbours than the current time. The conflict in the Middle East is a long way away, but it’s having an impact particularly in Asia, in our own region, because of the relationship of suppliers that come through the Strait of Hormuz and that disruption that has occurred and the uncertainty that is there with regard to a resolution to this conflict. Australia wants to see a de-escalation. We want to see talks between the United States and Iran resume, and we want to see a resumption of normal economic activity that is so important for the global economy. Australia and Brunei have a very positive relationship. We are Brunei’s largest trading partner, and that is the context of the welcome that we had here from His Majesty, the Sultan of Brunei. Who welcomed us here and who I’ve just had my seventh meeting with as Prime Minister, including twice hosting His Majesty in Australia since I’ve been elected as Prime Minister.
We are both feeling, of course, the consequences, as are countries right around the world, about changes to supply. And Australia has a lot to benefit from engaging with our neighbours in this region. Brunei supplies nine per cent of Australia’s diesel imports, and more than that, 11 per cent of our fertiliser-grade urea imports. Today, at the Brunei Fertilizer Industries, we had the opportunity to talk firsthand about the potential that’s there as well for an increase in Australia receiving fertiliser in particular from Brunei and we had very positive discussions and that will continue. It will continue in the context as well of the agreed Joint Statement on Energy and Food Security that was signed by myself and His Majesty. This underscores our commitment to ensuring that essential goods continue to flow between our countries. And that guarantee which is there will make a difference as well to provide that certainty by building regional cooperation on energy, security and economic resilience. We strengthen our fuel security, and we strengthen the economies in our region as well.
There’s just one further thing before I turn to the Foreign Minister, which is to reaffirm the announcement that’s been made by Minister Bowen, which follows last week’s announcement that we made in Brisbane about using Export Finance Australia, EFA, to underwrite the purchase of additional fuel loads from around the world. From spot markets that are available, but that require additional government support in order to give businesses, the private sector the confidence to be able to go out there and participate in this market. Last week, we announced Viva and Ampol had come to agreements with EFA. And today we’re partnered with IOR and Park Fuels to enable them to be able to secure additional fuel into the Australian market. Now, this is particularly important because these smaller companies are particularly focused on regional Australia. And one of the things that we know is that some of the shortages which we have seen have particularly been in regional Australia, so giving them that security as well. This isn’t business as usual. This is in addition to the normal flow that would come into Australia. Literally shiploads of additional fuel are getting here to Australia, targeted to regional communities where it is most needed. I’ll turn to the Foreign Minister, then happy to take a couple questions.
< SENATOR PENNY WONG, FOREIGN MINISTER:
So, the Prime Minister’s engagement here in Brunei and in Singapore and in Malaysia is about making sure we have strong, reliable and trusted partnerships for us to navigate what may be a longer economic tail of this conflict. The statement that was signed today reflects that willingness to work with each other on our shared security, on energy security, on food security, the recognition that the urea and diesel that we seek, we import from Brunei and that we continue to seek comes back to the region as food. That is very well understood here. And what this demonstrates is the willingness of Australia and Brunei on the back of the announcement the Prime Minister made in Singapore to have regional partners work together at these challenging times. Thank you.
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We continue to monitor on a regular basis, and we are doing what we can right across the board to shield Australia as best as we can from the impact of this global action, but we’re not immune from it. As I said in my statement to the nation, that we cannot make, ourselves, like every other nation, is being impacted by this. What we can do though is to not retreat from action, is step forward with further action. That’s what we’ve done with the changes that we made to supply by changing the fuel requirements to allow more diesel and petrol to be able to be distributed that would normally only be available for export. That’s what we’ve done with the agreements that we’ve struck through EFA. And now we are hearing positive signs about the work that those companies are doing to secure those additional shiploads as well, and we hope to have further announcements about that once they are secured. But we have been as well making sure that we engage in our region with our partners, with our suppliers, to make sure that as far as is possible, we restrict any impact on Australia.
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