SUSAN GRAHAM-RYAN, HOST: The war in the Middle East is putting greater pressure on fuel supplies and despite Australia, our supply coming from Asia, with fuel prices up sharply, distributors are under pressure, some people are stockpiling and some servos are running low. Just yesterday, an urgent roundtable was held in Canberra to discuss fuel reserves and those rising prices and what it means moving on. Industry Minister Tim Ayres is with me now. Thanks for your time this morning, Senator.

SENATOR TIM AYRES, MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND INNOVATION AND MINISTER FOR SCIENCE: G', day, Susan. Really good to be on the show.

HOST. So, how much fuel do we have in reserve in Australia right now?

AYRES: We've got more now than we've had for 15 years. So, when we were elected in 2022, the previous Government had no real fuel reservation strategy, and the guy who now runs the Opposition, Angus Taylor, was the Energy Minister, and the proposal was that our fuel reserves should be held in Texas, not in Australia. We have now on hand in Australia 36 days of petrol. That's 1.56 billion litres of petrol, and on hand, 32 days of diesel, and that's 2.97 billion litres of diesel available. We are, as a Government, monitoring that very closely. That approach that we've taken to fuel security means that we are more secure than we've been, that we're in a good position given the war in the Middle East, but we're not complacent about that. We're obviously continuing to engage with industry and with the distribution system in a very close way, and you obviously saw evidence of that going on yesterday.

HOST: Is 36 and 32 days enough, given that we are in a time where there seems to be increasing geopolitical tension and we are seeing wars popping up from time to time, be they 12 days, be they longer? Is 32, 36 days enough?

AYRES: Just to put that in a bit of context, those numbers have not changed since the beginning of the conflict. Ships are still continuing to arrive exactly as predicted, as reported back in discussions that Chris Bowen and I and the transport minister and agriculture minister held yesterday with the petroleum sector, farmers and the fertiliser sector. Shiploads continuing to arrive exactly as predicted and obviously watching very closely ship movements on their way to Australia, that is continuing to occur as predicted. But of course, we're engaging with international partners watching the conflict very closely. Your listeners will be seeing the outcome of that in price terms at the bowser for both households and industry. There's no real shift. We have a National Liquid Fuel Emergency Response Plan and I can just confirm that our response level still remains at the lowest level out of the six escalating levels. We are confident as a Government about what is on hand. It's there because of the steps that we've taken, but we're monitoring it very, very closely indeed.

HOST. So, Senator Ayres, yesterday there was this roundtable to discuss the increasing domestic demand, the increasing fuel prices. What solutions are we going to see come from this roundtable?

AYRES: The way that as a Government that we have been approaching all of these national challenges is to get Australians working together, not pitting the interests of farmers and the petroleum sector at each other. It's working together. That ongoing dialogue between those institutions and those sectors of the community is a very important part of this. Making sure that we're sharing information in a transparent and clear way so that whether it's households or business can see the facts here. There's a bit of mischievous information, particularly on social media that has driven some spikes in demand in some areas and that's had pretty negative effects in some areas of the country. We're determined to make sure, one of the key principles that emerged from yesterday is everybody, not just Government, everybody's got a responsibility to be talking about the facts and the situation in a transparent kind of way. On fertiliser, we have confirmed that there is sufficient fertiliser on hand already in Australia for the first few months of the planting season as that moves around the country. It was very good news the day before yesterday to see that the sale of the Dyno Nobel facility at Phosphate Hill in North West Queensland was executed properly. That means that facility will continue to operate. It's currently Australia's only fertiliser production facility, makes a very significant proportion of our phosphate-based fertiliser. There will be coming on stream more fertiliser production facilities in Western Australia with the Perdaman facility coming on stream. We have a broad economic resilience agenda. That is a long-term position, which I think is what you're pointing to. But immediately now on the short-term questions, we're working in a responsible way with industry to make sure that, you know, not complacent, but we have significant amounts of petrol and diesel on hand today.

HOST: Speaking of that sovereign capability, is there potential, is there an appetite to move more of that refining, whether that be biofuel, whether that be the fuel that's coming into the country, is there an appetite for increased, increasing that onshore sovereign capability for refining?

AYRES: Yeah, it’s a good question, if I can take it in parts. Firstly, we have much less refining capability in Australia than we had 15 years ago. Four out of the 6 refineries closed during the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison period. In any case, whether the fuel is refined here in Australia or is refined in Singapore or in some of our other partners, we're not a country with vast reserves of crude oil. We're always going to be importing fuel. Those broader fuel security measures, yes, having a national fuel reserve, obviously, the more Australians, particularly in the cities, buying electric vehicles, that is a fuel security measure. Vladimir Putin can't stop the sun shining in Australia. The Iranian regime can't stop the wind blowing in Australia. We've reserved Australian gas for Australian households and business so that we're making sure as a Government that those fuel – so if we're going from the electricity system, gas plus storage plus wind plus solar, that is more fuel security for Australia. We'll continue to look at the strength of our fuel security arrangements as time goes on. But I have some confidence about the improvements that we've made. It's the Albanese Government that's imposed the Minimum Stockholding Obligation on the economy. That's led to real results. More fuel on hand now than there has been for 15 years.

HOST: Is there a potential to improve decentralisation? Because we know regional Queensland in particular at the moment, which is where I'm focused on, is, you know, we're in the midst of floods and hundreds and hundreds of road closures. That impacts the ability of the supply chain as a whole, but it also impacts producers and individuals and service stations and being able to get that fuel. Is there potential to expand that so that we don't have the stores centralised in certain parts so that there is greater access to fuel as there may be different pressures?

AYRES: Well, we're certainly getting feedback here in Canberra about the difficulties, particularly where there are independent retailers who, while the national position on supply might be strong, these spikes in demand have driven poorer outcomes in terms of immediate fuel in some parts of the country. And of course, we've got the floods happening in Northern Queensland that will just magnify, you know, it's tougher in regional Australia. Roads, distribution systems, all of those things are harder. And when there's a series of compounding questions, floods plus international conflict, well we've just got to keep working with industry to try and drive a better result. Right now, of course, the Queensland State Government is leading the emergency response around the floods. There are packages there that are still Commonwealth support packages for around 50 local Government areas that are still in place from floods that occurred in December, just a few months ago. We're working closely with Queensland on these issues and I'm sure getting fuel to some of these communities will be a high priority for the Queensland Government.

HOST: Absolutely. It's been a big season, a big wet season. We've got a question from Monica on the text line saying “if we have 30 days plus in reserve, why did the prices start rising several cents per day within the days of the bombing starting? All of our current fuel being delivered technically is old stock.” What do you say to Monica?

AYRES: That's why we've instructed the ACCC to direct its powers to the fuel sector and to retail fuel.

HOST: Will they though?

AYRES: Yes, they will. Service stations are very quick to adjust prices upwards in relation to international prices rising. What we need to make sure is they're just as quick to adjust them down when international prices come off. That's a completely legitimate observation, a completely legitimate concern. We've got powers there with the ACCC to monitor and to drive compliance amongst the fuel sector. And I reckon your listeners will be watching very closely to see when international crude prices come down, is your local service station dropping the price in response to that just as quickly as they jacked it up?

HOST: I reckon they will be very closely watching. Just before I let you go, Industry Minister Senator Tim Ayres. The big news news in federal politics with Maranoa MP David Littleproud resigning as the leader of the National Party. What's your take from the other side of the aisle?

AYRES: Of course I've got very sharp disagreements with David, but I just say, all of us come to politics because we're passionate about the future of Australia, we care deeply about the country. You could hear it in David's press conference, he’s had enough. I understand that. And I wish him and his family the very best for the future. I think what we're seeing on the conservative side of politics in Australia is a turning inwards and away from the issues that matter for ordinary people and a more and more inwardly focused internal ideological argument amongst more and more extreme conservative politicians. That's not good for Australia. It's not good for the bush. The National Party used to be the voice of common sense in Canberra, and you couldn't say that that's the role that they're playing in national politics at the moment.

HOST: Who should take over?

AYRES: I'm not sure that it matters. I mean it seems to me a bit odd that National Party politicians from the Senate, where there's only four National Party politicians in the Senate, could hope to lead a political party. It used to be the National Party's tradition that it would provide Deputy Prime Minister when, when the Conservatives won, when the Liberal National Party Coalition won Government, that that National Party would provide the Deputy Prime Minister. You can't do that for the Senate, and it just seems to me to indicate that the National Party's given up on Government as an objective. It's all the internal ideological stuff, the weird, imported politics, not the fair dinkum focus on common sense solutions for regional communities. All we can do as a Government is keep acting in the national interest. Delivering for my part the biggest pro-manufacturing policy platform in Australian history. That's just over the last couple of weeks led to new investments in aluminium production. High purity alumina production in Gladstone, saving the Mount Isa Mines, delivering for Dyno Noble and Phosphate Hill. We are determined to do practical things. If they want to disappear into a smaller room getting less relevant for ordinary people, that is a matter for them.

HOST: Industry Minister Senator Tim Ayres. Thanks for your time today.

AYRES: Thanks Susan. Good on you.

ENDS.