Nick Xenophon (SA, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for his answer. I have a few questions arising out of that. Firstly, where does the government envisage that the host countries will be? Obviously, depending on where the host countries are, the fuel might have to go through the Strait of Hormuz or the Strait of Malacca. Secondly, the host contract references an accountability mechanism about whether they can fulfil those contracts or whether they are robust. Is that something that will be made publicly available or is that something that we can establish, for instance, through the mechanisms of the estimates process or some other process? In other words, how can the public and industry be assured that these host contracts are robust? So that's the second question.

Thirdly, I go back to the issue of force majeure. Does the government concede that these contracts may not be enforceable in the event of the outbreak of a conflict, which I hope never occurs, but, given the geopolitical situation we see in our region, particularly on the Korean peninsula, we cannot assume that there will not be an outbreak of conflict at some time in the future?