An old TV interview has come back to haunt Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as Aussies continue to be hit hard at the bowser as the fuel crisis deepens.
The 2020 interview on ABC News occurred when Albanese was the Leader of the Opposition and he had no issue slamming the Morrison Government’s inaction regarding fuel supplies.
‘The point of our international obligations is that Australia should have here 90 days available of liquid fuel reserves, so we are significantly in breach,’ Albanese said in the interview.
‘We shouldn’t be dependent upon circumstances which may be beyond our control…of any particular international incident, be it military conflict or other issues, will mean that we run out of fuel.’
Albanese even predicted that a war, like the current one in Iran which has currently closed off the Strait of Hormuz, could leave Australia vulnerable when it came to fuel.
‘If there’s a sort of international conflict or issues that provide disruption to sea lanes that may well occur at some stage in the future, then that is why nation states need to have this fuel capacity,’ Albanese said.
‘It’s an issue of national security, and having something in the United States doesn’t provide for our national interest to be protected in the way that it should, and the government needs to emerge with a plan for our refining capacity, for storage here, and they’ve had now they’ve been there for seven years.’
In 2020, Albanese said the Morrison Government needed to ensure Australia had at least 90 days of liquid fuel reserves.
Albanese spoke on the ABC about the Morrison Government’s inaction regarding fuel in 2020
The closing of the Strait of Hormuz could leave Australia vulnerable when it comes to fuel
The Strait of Hormuz is an important sea lane for world fuel supplies
It currently has around 38 days’ worth of fuel which is well below Albanese’s 2020 expectations.
Australia relies on overseas markets for around 90 per cent of its liquid fuels, including petrol, diesel and jet fuel, with most shipments arriving from Asia.
On Friday, Albanese touched down in Singapore for high-stakes talks to shore up Australia’s fuel supply amid the global uncertainty.
Australia’s status as Singapore’s biggest gas provider is set to feature in Albanese’s pitch as he presses for guaranteed access to Singaporean fuel, with supply lines to the Jurong Island refinery under strain.
Singapore is the largest supplier of refined petrol to Australia, accounting for more than half the nation’s intake.
Albanese’s mission will involve convincing Singapore to prioritise Australia if the ceasefire fails, with trade in petrol and diesel to also feature heavily in discussions.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen said on Saturday that Australia had 31 days’ worth of diesel, and 28 days’ worth of jet fuel.
Bowen also confirmed that there are 57 tankers heading to Australia containing jet fuel, diesel, petrol and crude oil.
The Prime Minister jetted out of Australia on Thursday morning ahead of a last-minute bilateral meeting with his Singaporean counterpart Lawrence Wong (the pair are pictured in late 2025)
‘I can still say that we have roughly as much, if not more, fuel in Australia today than we did when the bombing of Iran started,’ Bowen said.
Despite Bowen’s reassurances, he did admit that the war in Iran would be felt in the hip pocket of everyday Aussies for some time, but that they understood why fuel was costing so much.
‘There is a war on. I think most Australians understand it,’ he said.
‘I’m not going to pretend that that’s not happening. No one should. And that is going to hang around for a while.
‘The best way we can ensure prices come down is this war ends.’
The Prime Minister did say at the national press club last week that Australia needed to become more self-sufficient and less vulnerable.
‘We had, fortunately, at the beginning of this global crisis, the largest fuel reserves that we’d had in Australia for 15 years. And importantly, our fuel reserves were here, not in the United States,’ he said.
