Australia’s fuel taskforce co-ordinator would take home about $1m if her salary was annualised, making her one of the country’s highest paid public servants, a Senate estimates hearing has been told.
Anthea Harris was appointed co-ordinator earlier this year as the Albanese government grappled with fallout from the Iran war.
A Senate estimates hearing was told Ms Harris was contracted to receive $233,676 for three months and one week of work, from March 23 to June 30.
If annualised, she would receive a salary of about $1m, Liberal senator Dave Sharma said.
If so, she would take home only marginally less than Reserve Bank of Australia governor Michele Bullock, whose renumeration before super and supplementary pay is about $1m.
“That’s higher than any, I think, higher than any commonwealth public servant receives in salary, except perhaps for the RBA governor,” Senator Sharma said.
Later, he added Ms Harris was paid “four times any member of parliament”.
The hearing was told no decision had been yet on whether to extend the tenure of Ms Harris, who was present, but that call would be made closer to her contract’s expiration.
“The contract does allow extensions if we feel that that’s necessary,” an official said.
Ms Harris is separately employed to undertake a Water Act review but said work on that project had been “minimal” because of her taskforce work.
Her taskforce renumeration came out of a $9.2m allocation by the Albanese government, the hearing was told.
To date, she has not undertaken any overseas travel as part of the role, with only a single trip to Sydney for a meeting of national cabinet and two visits to Victoria to meet with state co-ordinators.
The funding, which includes about $1m for McKenzie Group Consulting, would sunset on December 30.
Whether it would be continued was “a bit of a hypothetical”, an official said.
“I think as much as we can try and anticipate what’s going on with the global turmoil at the moment, we would hope not to be in these circumstances, but it’s too hard to predict,” they said.
Asked about deliverables of the role, Industry Minister Tim Ayres said Anthony Albanese had been “pretty clear about what the outcome of this work has been so far”, noting extra shipments of petroleum, diesel, and fertiliser.
Fuel update
On Monday, the Prime Minister warned the flow-on impacts of the war in the Middle East would likely continue long after the conflict ended.
Mr Albanese said Australia had fuel secured into July amid “volatile and uncertain times” while warning Australians the end of conflict in the Middle East would not immediately ease the economic impacts.
“There’ll be a period of time before the ships are able to go through the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.
“The ships that are stranded there at the moment have to go and offload their fuel or cargoes that can take up to 30 days and go back to collect more cargo and then go back to their place of destination.”
After briefing national cabinet, Mr Albanese announced that Australia now had 43 days of petrol – an extra five days compared with February 28.
In terms of the diesel shortage, which has had a significant impact on the agriculture industry, he announced a six-day increase, with reserves of 38 days.
Jet fuel supply has increased to 31 days.
“While the conflict is a long way from home. we’re not immune to its impacts. The longer the conflict goes on the more enduring the impact will be,” Mr Albanese said.
He thanked Australians, saying “hoarding of fuel has stopped, people are taking just what they need”.
Amid China’s restricted fuel export, Mr Albanese announced 660,000 barrels of jet fuel had been secured for Australia after Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s visit to China.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen also said Australia’s fuel security was healthy after what he described as “one of the largest energy crises in world history” coupled with the country’s largest refinery catching fire.
“The world has certainly thrown a lot at Australia’s fuel supply over the last two months,” he said.
He said 38 days of fuel stock was the country’s highest since the minimum stock obligations were introduced in 2023.
Responding to the global energy shock following the conflict in the Middle East, the Albanese government halved the fuel excise temporarily from April 1 to June 30, reducing the cost of fuel by 26.3 cents per litre.
The fuel crisis began in late February when Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz following US and Israel attacks.
The US has since imposed a counter blockade of Iran’s coastline, including its ports, as part of military efforts to get ships through the waterway.
As a result, crude oil prices have since remained volatile, hovering above the crucial economic threshold of $US100 per barrel.
Mr Albanese said Australia was “hopeful” for a peaceful resolution.
“It is in the global economy’s interest and it is therefore in Australia’s interest as well,” he said.
Extracted in full from: https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/anthony-albanese-warns-of-lasting-economic-pain-despite-australias-boost-to-fuel-stocks/news-story/275ed69bfa85e992870ef1c543ce1b4d
