Fuel rationing isn’t inevitable, federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen says, while insisting a “coordinated approach” to the fuel crisis will feel different to the response to COVID.
“We want to see the lessons of COVID learned and, also, we want to make clear to the Australian people that where we think we’ll be [acting], will be signalled well in advance,” Bowen told ABC radio.
“It’s not going to mean 9pm press conferences saying what you can and can’t do tomorrow.”
National cabinet – a meeting of state, territory and federal leaders – will be convened this morning to discuss the nation’s response to the fuel crisis. The cabinet was established by the Morrison government to respond to the COVID pandemic.
“I don’t want to pre-empt what the prime minister and premiers and chief ministers will be talking about today, but, obviously, they’ll be talking about: ‘You don’t just jump from one situation to the other. You talk about how we’ll manage an unfolding situation together.’ That’ll certainly be what we’ll be putting to the first ministers, and that’s rational and sensible,” Bowen said.
Meanwhile, Energy Minister Chris Bowen says the government’s emergency legislation to boost fuel stocks – to be introduced to parliament today – is a “vital intervention” that will help Australian firms scour the globe for shipments of petrol, diesel, crude oil and fertiliser.
Amendments to the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation Act will be introduced to the House of Representatives and will essentially allow the government to underwrite purchases by private companies. The government will not pay upfront for fuel, but public funds will be put up as an insurance for importers that are having to buy fuel at sky-high prices.
“We’ll set up Export Finance Australia to help these firms hedge their risk so that they can make these purchases with confidence, so that they can buy these cargoes and get them on the way to Australia as soon as possible,” Bowen told the ABC Radio.
“It’s a well calibrated, vital intervention to assist with the flow of fuel to Australia over coming weeks and months.”
Bowen said the measure would support independent distributors and that it showed the government was “one step ahead” of the crisis.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has not ruled out a reduction to the fuel excise today after the opposition last week called for a halving of the tax to provide some help to customers at the bowser.
On Friday, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor and Nationals leader Matt Canavan called for an immediate halving of the fuel excise, which currently sits at 52.6 cents per litre.
Asked on Sky News this morning whether a cut to the tax was part of the government’s plan, Chalmers said:
Our plan is all about securing more supply. It’s about getting distribution, particularly to regional areas. It’s about cracking down on rip-offs, and it’s also about helping with the cost of living in other ways.”
Obviously, we have a range of contingencies and fallbacks that we keep under more or less constant review … our government is always looking for ways – responsible ways – to help people with the cost of living, to try and alleviate some of this pressure which is coming at people.”
This is what Taylor said at the time:
Families across the country are seeing their standard of living collapse, yet Labor does nothing. Right now, what we need is an immediate tax cut at the bowser and a government that gets fuel to where it is needed.”
Halving the excise on fuel and diesel would take approximately $12 billion out of the national budget.
State and territory leaders will meet with the prime minister this morning to coordinate the national response to the ongoing fuel crisis in an attempt to avoid a “COVID-style” response, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has said.
“The best way to get through this is to get through it together, to work through these issues in a coordinated and ideally consistent way around the country,” Chalmers told ABC News Breakfast a short while ago.
“The best way to avoid the kind of harsher COVID-style measures is to do that work. The better we do at the front end of this challenge … the more likely we are to avoid some of those kind of harsher measures and restrictions down the track.”
National cabinet will meet in Canberra this morning at 10am, AEDT, as federal parliament sits for the last time before the May budget. State and territory leaders will attend, either virtually or in person, alongside the prime minister and relevant federal ministers.
Chalmers went on to say the government had “a willingness” to support voluntary work-from-home measures to save fuel. He said it would be among a number of policies discussed at national cabinet:
One of the reasons why the prime minister has brought the states and territories together today is because we want to avoid harsh restrictions. We want to avoid those kind of heavy handed COVID interventions, and to make sure that people are doing the most responsible thing they can.
The better we do at the front end of this challenge that we have in our economy, the more likely we are to avoid some of those kind of harsher measures and restrictions down the track.”
Extracted in full from: https://www.smh.com.au/national/australia-politics-live-national-cabinet-prepares-to-meet-amid-petrol-pain-20260329-p5zjp9.html
