Federal government adjusts fuel quality standards to boost supply
Tom McIlroy
As we mentioned, the federal energy minister, Chris Bowen, has just announced a temporary downgrade in Australia’s fuel quality standards, a move designed to put an extra 100m litres per month enter the system.
Bowen has told parliament that in order to assist with getting more supply into the system and to try and put downward pressure on prices, the government will allow a 60-day change to allow higher sulfur levels in fuel.
The petrol supply will be prioritised for regional areas. It would otherwise have been exported to countries overseas.
Bowen says:
While Australian fuel consumption has not changed, this will help relieve pressure on distribution chains disrupted by elevated demand.
The government has been unequivocal – this additional supply must help the people who need it, including farmers, fishers and regional communities.
Bowen has also activated the national coordination mechanism to work with fuel producers and retailers during the growing conflict in the Middle East.
Key events
Bowen was also asked about the federal government’s response to the International Energy Agency’s decision to release oil from global energy reserves.
The world’s energy watchdog said its 32 members had agreed unanimously to release about 400m barrels of emergency crude, a third of the group’s total government stockpiles and more than double the IEA’s previous biggest release.
Bowen said it was “appropriate” the commonwealth took some time to “think this through”.
It is a voluntary call, and my focus and my response will be focused on Australia’s best interests … We are good members of the IEA, we are good citizens, we are taking the voluntary call very seriously but I am considering it.
Read more about the decision here:
The energy minister, Chris Bowen, is fresh out of Question Time and over to ABC’S Afternoon Briefing.
He told the program there was “no doubt” Australians road tripping over Easter would be impacted by the “international crisis” on petrol prices but that didn’t mean they should panic buy now.
It is important … that we say to people [to] get as much fuel as you need but not less or more because we are seeing a doubling of demand for fuel since the bombing of Iran and that has caused real, unacceptable supply chain pressure in Australia.
Bowen said the government wasn’t considering a temporary flash to the fuel excise and measures announced today should help with supply measures.
Australia’s supplies are good and secure and at this point all the ships we were expecting have arrived, our strategic reserve is in place. When we say our fuel supply is secure, we mean it because it is true.
Andrew Messenger
Elizabeth Struhs inquest hears eight-year-old’s return home against objection of doctors
A coronial inquest has heard eight-year-old Elizabeth Struhs, who was killed by family in 2022, was released back to them over the objection of her paediatricians.
The court is holding a pre-inquest hearing into the case today. Struhs, a type 1 diabetic, died as a result of being denied insulin by her family, who believed that God would intervene to save her.
She was hospitalised in 2019 as a result of her illness before being returned to her family. Her mother, Kerrie, openly refused to provide her medical care.
Counsel assisting Simon Hamlyn-Harris told the court:
The decision in August 2019 to return Elizabeth to her family home was in the face of strongly expressed opposition from the consultant paediatrician at the Children’s hospital, the child protection and forensic medical service at the Queensland Children’s hospital.
He read out a contemporaneous email: “It is the opinion of the CPFMS – that is the child protection and forensic medical service – and the endocrine team at QCH that Elizabeth cannot safely be cared for in a home where her mother resides, due to the strong beliefs that she’s expressing”.
Hamlyn-Harris said child safety clearly did not agree with that assessment, perhaps because her father, Jason Struhs, committed to provide her the insulin she needed to live. He did so for two years.
The inquest continues.
Police discover bodies of mother and baby after man hit by car in Queensland’s south-east
A mother and her baby daughter have been stabbed to death, while a man covered in blood was hit by a car close to the grisly crime scene.
The tragedy was discovered after reports of the injured man being struck by a vehicle near a supermarket in Queensland’s south-east. The man with neck wounds was hit in Logan, about 30km south of Brisbane, on Thursday morning.
Police were trying to reach the man’s next of kin when officers discovered the bodies of a 38-year-old woman and her one-year-old daughter in the family’s nearby home.
Both died from critical injuries from an edged weapon, Detective Superintendent Chris Ahearn said:
We believe the three of these people live in a family unit at that house – child, mother and father. Our investigations are focusing heavily on the nature of their relationship and living arrangements at that house.
Witnesses raised the alarm after seeing a man covered in blood running along a footpath before he was hit by a black utility about 300m from the family home. Evidence markers have been placed along the footpath, marking a trail of blood leading from the house.
The man remains in a serious condition and is under police guard in hospital. There were no domestic violence orders involving the couple, police said, adding there was no further threat to the community. The home remains a crime scene as detectives appeal for anyone with information or dashcam footage to contact police.
-Australian Associated Press
Josh Taylor
Singtel not considering divesting from Optus after triple zero outage
The Senate inquiry examining September’s Optus triple zero outage has brought before it this afternoon Singtel board members John Arthur and Gail Kelly to answer questions about its support for its Australian company, Optus.
Liberal senator Sarah Henderson asked the board members about whether Singtel remains committed to Optus, or whether it has considered divesting after the ongoing issues with the telco.
Kelly said:
We, Singtel, want Optus to thrive. We want Optus to fulfill its obligations to its customers and fulfill its obligations to the Australian people more broadly.
Arthur, who is also the chair of Optus, said “Optus will continue to be a significant part of the Singtel group” and Singtel is “committed to Australia” through continued heavy investment in Optus.
Kelly said foreign-owned companies, when there is an issue, tend to reign back in control to the parent company, but in Singtel’s case, the company has invested more in Optus and worked to strengthen the board and the company in the wake of the outage.
Arthur said Optus had changed the way it had worked in the past, trying to be as transparent as possible, noting the Dr Kerry Schott report on the outage was released “without a word redacted”.
Following Optus’s 2022 cyberattack, the company fought to keep the report on the hack a secret.
Circling back to question time, and there were a number of personal explanations after formalities wrapped up.
The member for Warringah, Zali Steggall, refuted an allegation made by the prime minister in his response to a question from Sophie Scamps that
there was no reporting of personal staff allocations to crossbenchers in the Morrison government.
That is incorrect.
The prime minister’s words were: ‘Not only did the Morrison government not report that or come to the dispatch box, they were pretty quiet about that in that corner about it too, Mr Speaker.’ Those figures are reported at Senate estimates every time. There was no non-disclosure.
The prime minister stated: ‘The greatest number of representations that I had from crossbenchers in the House and in the Senate isn’t about health policy, isn’t about education policy or housing — it’s about their staff.’ … Again, that is not correct. The largest number of representations that I have made to the prime minister and the government is to accelerate climate action and truth in political advertising.
What we learned from question time
There you have it. The foreign minister for Estonia was in the house today, so let’s hope he had a good time. Here’s a recap of what happened:
The federal energy minister, Chris Bowen, announced a temporary downgrade in Australia’s fuel quality standards, a move designed to put an extra 100m litres per month into the system for the next 60 days.
Labor was consistently pressed on whether Australia was in a crisis over fuel supplies and stockpiling, leading to quite a bit of conjecture in the chamber. The message from the prime minister was “don’t panic”, while Bowen acknowledged that war, by definition, is a crisis.
The independent MP, Sophie Scamps, pressed the federal government on whether it promised extra staff for the Coalition in exchange for support on Labor’s Freedom Of Information bill. Anthony Albanese said they didn’t, while adding it was unreasonable for crossbench members to have more staff than some MPs.
And independent MP Dr Monique Ryan questioned the treasurer on if the government would impose a windfall tax on oil and gas profits from conflicts such as in Iran. Jim Chalmers neglected to answer directly, instead saying Labor had already made some changes to the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT).
Question time ends
Question time concludes with a dixer to the prime minister from the member for Moore, Tom French, on how the government is “delivering for Australians and working in the national interest”.
Albanese uses it to run through a laundry list of accomplishments, including assistance being given to the Northern Territory and Queensland amid ongoing flooding events.
We’ve been dealing with these issues in the context of the fact there is a war … that is having an extraordinary impact on the world.
And those opposite have asked questions of when will the war end and they’ve asked, ‘Is there a crisis?’ when the whole world – whether they be in Australia, in the United States, in the Middle East or anywhere else, knows this is a massive challenge for the entire world and the global community.
Dan Tehan hops up in anger, and Albanese instructs him to “sit down”.
He’s been on TV enough this week.
And that’s a wrap.
Sophie Scamps on personal staff and FoI amendment bill
The independent MP Sophie Scamps is back, and she’s got a bone to pick.
My question is to the prime minister: was personal staff used as a way to encourage the Coalition to support the Freedom of Information Amendment bill?
The speaker, Milton Dick, says the question is “barely within standing orders” but he will allow it, while allowing the PM to be “broad” with his answer.
Albanese is brief.
Well, they didn’t, much to their shame, because this is an area that needs reform.
The Labor member for Calwell, Basem Abdo, has been booted from the chamber after the speaker was unable to hear a question from the shadow minister for scrutiny of government waste and accountability, and shadow minister assisting for fisheries and forestry (what a mouthful), Tony Pasin.
Surprising no one, it’s about fuel.
Can the minister rule out making any changes to the diesel fuel credit arrangements, noting that any changes will slug farmers and miners with a tax increase of roughly 20 cents a litre, which will flow directly through to Australians in the form of higher fuel and grocery prices in this national crisis?
Chris Bowen jumps up and ooh, he’s angry!
I thank the honourable member for his question.
I seem to recall he was excluded from the House earlier in the week, that’s why he didn’t hear my answer to the member for Mackellar, where I said the government’s policy has not changed and pointed out it provides strong support for farmers. That’s what I said earlier in the week to the member for Mackellar. That’s what I say to the honourable member.
Albanese is asked about crossbench staff allocation
Independent MP Sophie Scamps is up next, and asks a question to the prime minister on the freedom of information amendment bill.
To avoid perceived conflict of interest, will the prime minister commit to ensuring personal staff allocations [by an] independent body rather than awarded at the discretion of the prime minister of the day?
Anthony Albanese says when he became prime minister, he was “somewhat surprised” to hear, under the Morrison government, members of the crossbench had double the number of staff as members of the Labor party, the Liberal party and the National party.
With respect, I’m not sure what those arrangements were, but they were double …
I thought it was a bit unreasonable electorates – such as Bennelong, next to the three seats that are now occupied by Independents – should have half the staff, and the people of Bennelong should get the capacity to just have half the representation of people who were independents. That just failed the commonsense test. And that was my view …
I think it’s been more than fair. And I make this point – that the most number of representations that I have had from crossbenchers in the House and in the Senate isn’t about health policy, it isn’t about housing policy, it’s about their staff.
Bowen pressed on fuel supply in regional Australia
The Liberal member for Durack, Melissa Price, presses Chris Bowen on whether he can guarantee that members of Western Australia’s Country Health Service will be able to access a secure supply of fuel after it told its staff: “Please make sure all cars are not left below three-quarters of a tank at all times.”
It follows a strange dixer to the education minister, Jason Clare, on university reforms from Labor MP Jess Teesdale, who he describes as the “beloved member for Bass”.
Bowen says he is a “little surprised” by the question since he has just announced an additional 100m litres of supply and the opposition “has not asked a question about it”.
I will work closely with the Western Australian government and health services, and there are some honourable members who have been to see me over the last 48 hours from that side of the House … and have asked me to address them.
Bowen is again pressed on whether he can guarantee supply for regional areas, as members of the opposition shout “where is it”.
Western Australia is connected to the rest of the country. We’re part of the same country.
Monique Ryan asks if government will impose windfall tax on oil and gas profits from conflicts such as in Iran
The member for Kooyong, Dr Monique Ryan, puts a question to the treasurer on oil and gas profits.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Woodside doubled its profits. The PRRT fails to capture windfall profits from conflicts like those in Ukraine and Iran.
In a cost-of-living crisis, will you impose a windfall tax on the excess profits of oil and gas companies profits from conflicts like those in Ukraine and Iran?
Jim Chalmers says he acknowledges there are a “range of views” about windfall taxation.
For our part in this government, we’ve already made some changes to the PRRT, which will ensure that Australians collect more tax, sooner, from the export of offshore gas.
And we made those changes because we know that there is an expectation in the Australian community that PRRT, that companies who pay the PRRT, need to pay their fair share of tax … That’s not often acknowledged when people call for more to be done – we acknowledge and respect those calls to do more but we’ve already acted in a fairly substantial way.
Bowen continues to say that a crisis, whether international or otherwise, is a chance for “both sides of the house to provide leadership”.
The fact that you choose to make politics in a crisis says more about the opposition than it does about the government.
There are calls from the opposition, and the speaker issues a “general warning”.
There is just too much noise. So, we’ll take action.
Bowen is asked ‘are we in a national crisis?’
The member for Nicholls, Sam Birrell, addresses the minister for climate change with an alarmingly similar question to Tehan’s.
Are we in a national crisis?
Chris Bowen does not mince his words:
It may have escaped members opposite but there’s a war going on. Do I regard a war as a crisis? Yes, I do.
Do I regard the implications of that war, Mr Speaker, when it comes to fuel, internationally, as a crisis? Yes, I do, Mr Speaker.
That’s why the International Energy Agency cast implications of that war, Mr Speaker, when it comes to fuel internationally, as a crisis … And I tell you what, Mr Speaker, if I think a farmer can’t get fuel, is it a crisis for that farmer? Yes, Mr Speaker.
And so on, and so forth.
Coalition continues attack over fuel security
After a dixer to the treasurer, the manager of opposition business in the house, Dan Tehan, puts a question to the minister for resources, Madeleine King, again on fuel.
Can the minister for resources guarantee Australia won’t run out of fuel due to the ongoing Iran war? Minister, is this a national crisis?
King begins to thank him for his question but trails off as she bungles his title. Anthony Albanese interjects with a laugh:
It’s hard to keep up!
King replies “it really is”:
What I will guarantee to the Australian people is they will be far better placed to withstand the international shocks caused by the conflict in the Middle East with this government … always acting in the national interest than if those people, those MPs on the other side, were on these benches.
The treasurer has just highlighted exactly what those opposite have done – voted against important reform to make sure the Australian people can have access to the stockpiles of fuel that the minister for energy and climate change has made sure exist.
While the leader of the opposition made sure it was in Texas, or somewhere, I don’t even know, stockpiles of fuel that the minister for energy and climate change has made sure exist.
After much conjecture, there is a brief interlude from the speaker to welcome the foreign minister of Estonia, who is up in the gallery visiting question time. Everyone waves up to him.
Milton Dick:
I promised the foreign minister today he would witness democracy in action and here you are.
