Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to talk about the dire situation of Australia's fuel security. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns about our fuel security had been steadily growing. I had raised it, as had the member for Canning, the member for Solomon and Senator Jim Molan. Our concerns were about a lack of liquid fuel reserves, insufficient fuel storage capacity and our diminishing fuel refining capabilities.

What we've seen during this pandemic has brought these concerns to a crisis point. COVID-19 has exposed the weaknesses in Australian supply chains. Our reliance on these supply chains has been severely disrupted by the closing down of economies and borders, which has left us exposed and vulnerable. Shortages in critical medical equipment, pharmaceuticals and testing kits, as well as personal protective equipment and clothing for health professionals and frontline workers, impacted our initial pandemic response. At the same time, heightened international tensions, particularly around major trade routes, are forcing us to realise that we run the risk of further supply chain disruption. Current measures to address this issue are falling a long way short of what is needed.

The federal government's $211 million fuel security package announced in September was meant to address the enormous shortfalls in Australia's fuel security. So far, it has failed. Since the announcement, Australia has lost two of its four remaining oil refineries. Kwinana in Western Australia has closed, and it has just been announced that the ExxonMobil oil refinery in Altona will close. That leaves us with an energy refinery in Geelong and a refinery in Lytton in Queensland. Twenty years ago we had eight refineries, which virtually took care of all of our domestic fuel requirements. At present, Indonesia has eight refineries. The UK has six major refineries and one smaller one. Japan has 23 oil refineries. The United States has 137 refineries. We have two. What does that mean? It means that we will have continually reduced refinery capacity, with enormous implications for our liquid fuel security. These two existing refineries are relatively small and old. They have been competing against larger and more efficient refineries in the Asian region, according to a parliamentary research paper. We're aware of the mega-refineries in Asia. They do provide large economies of scale. But you've got to have sovereign fuel security capabilities in Australia.

The government's statistics show, in terms of existing reserves, that we've been non-compliant with the International Energy Agency's 90-day fuel stock holding obligation since March 2012. I've seen several reports which indicate how far we have fallen as to that obligation. The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, the PJCIS, of which I am deputy chair, has also noted that.

The other issue, though, is that even getting fuel supplies to our country through tankers is compromised because, according to the Maritime Union of Australia, there are no Australian-crewed tankers supplying fuel to our nation. In 2000, we had 12 tankers that were Australian-crewed. What that means is a substantial loss of maritime job and training opportunities. But it undermines our petroleum supply chain—it really does. It means that we're going to have to rely on foreign fuel coming on foreign ships to our shores in the case of an emergency, which is obviously of great concern.

Given our loss of refining capability and the fact that we don't have strategic fuel supplies to the levels we need, what does that mean?

How does the government keep our country going in the case of heightened international tensions? If someone says that's not going to happen, who predicted that we would have a global pandemic that would paralyse the world for the period of time in which it has? What happens to our Australian Defence Force, who will be required to defend us, if they don't have the fuel that is required to put jets in the air, to put tanks on the ground and to put ships at sea? This is a major strategic problem. We are starting to address COVID. We have to do it with fuel security. Our country, our nation's security, can't afford for this problem to continue.

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