Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

The government receives advice from a range of quarters. We respect ABARE and we note their advice. It is not formally government policy. We do not project or seek to project, as a government, what the future oil price will be. There are a whole range of views about what might happen to the price of oil—there have always been—and some are right and some are wrong. As far as we are concerned, we are investing substantially in Australia’s biofuels industry as an alternative: $37 million in biofuel capital grants, $52 million in ethanol production grants. The industry has protection from Brazilian ethanol and it is excise free, so we are doing an enormous amount. But at the end of the day we, like every other country in the world, are subject to the prevailing world price of oil.