Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party, Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, I want to quote to you something that Caltex said:

Given the variable nature of our operations it is not possible for Caltex to nominate its coastal trade for the coming 12 months because this is not known nor planned more than three months in advance. This has been the normal operating practice of Caltex, which will be adversely impacted by the requirements of the TL—

temporary licence—

regime.

Shell backed this assertion. It said:

Overall the Temporary Licence system appears more complicated and burdensome to both the oil industry and the Department than the existing Permit system, and in our opinion, will fail to deliver any of the objectives of the Act in respect to the oil tanker segment of the Australian shipping industry.

Seeing that we currently have immense pressures that are currently being put on the refining industry and seeing that we are talking about the most effective large-scale movement of their product between major capitals—given that we are probably going back to one or two refining capacities on the eastern coast so this is about bulk movement and refining capacity—do you see that the pressures from this could be part and parcel of a cost position that means ultimately we start to put out of business our own refining capacity, to be replaced with the importation of refined fuel, and as such more Australian workers will lose their jobs?