SARAH FERGUSON, PRESENTER: Welcome to the program, Dan Tehan. 

DAN TEHAN, SHADOW ENERGY MINISTER:  Sarah, wonderful to be with you and your listeners again.

SARAH FERGUSON:  Now there’s a global oil crisis. Energy infrastructure is being targeted in the Gulf, and those attacks look likely to escalate further. Is this a crisis now of such major proportions that broad bipartisanship is called for?

DAN TEHAN: Absolutely, and we’ve said all along we’re happy to work with the government and we’ve been making very considered suggestions to the government of the types of things that they could do and I’m very pleased that our call, along with the call of lots of people from industry for the Prime Minister to call National Cabinet has come about. 

And what’s really important now is that the fuel tsar who he appoints and hopefully it’s someone who will get to work straight away and not delay, will be able to look at key issues that need to be addressed. 

And some of those, and we’d be happy to work with the government on is what are we going to do about the pending shortage of fertiliser, which is coming our way? What are we going to be able to do to be able to allow the existing refineries here to be able to produce to their absolute maximum? 

What are we going to do to be able to identify where the shortages are and then what is the plan to address those shortages? 

When will the ACCC legislation come into force which will then enable the ACCC to be able to come down on those who are gouging? These are the things that need to be addressed and more and we’re happy to work with the government to make sure that they are.

SARAH FERGUSON:  Who would you like to see appointed as the fuel tsar?

DAN TEHAN:  Well, ultimately that’s a question up to the Prime Minister, but when we were in office during COVID, we appointed Major General John Frewin to be able to help with the supply of vaccines and he did a superb job. 

So someone who could coordinate across states and obviously across the federal government to make sure that we don’t see bureaucratic delays like when Chris Bowen announced that he was going to lower the sulphur standards that were required and then it took him five days to get the paperwork done. 

We need someone who understands the importance of how quickly it is that we act and will act and will be able to harness both state and federal bureaucracies and obviously state and federal leaders to be able to do that.

SARAH FERGUSON:  We saw yesterday, and we asked the Treasurer about this last night, there are truckers in Queensland already asking for COVID style government support. Do you think that should be on the table?

DAN TEHAN:  Well, it needs to be considered, and I think that’s one of the things that I would hope that the Prime Minister will be looking at National Cabinet tomorrow. 

These are all the questions that need to be answered and answered quickly. And if that sort of support is needed to make sure that we can get the fuel to where the shortages are, then that’s something absolutely that should be looked at because one of the things, and we’ve asked the government and especially Chris Bowen this for a couple of weeks now, is where are the shortages? What are you doing about identifying them? Because that’s what we need as a start because then you can make sure that the supply gets to the areas that’s needed. 

And I’m very, very pleased that the Prime Minister has stepped in and said, okay, Chris Bowen, we’re going to leave it to the fuel tsar now, we’ve just got to make sure we get that fuel tsar the right person appointed so he can do the job that Chris Bowen sadly hasn’t been able to do.

SARAH FERGUSON:  I mentioned in the opening question that there have been further attacks on energy infrastructure in the Gulf. Also, today there was an attack on a base in the UAE where the Australian, the ADF is based in the Gulf. Does the opposition still give full throated support to this war and the way it’s being managed?

DAN TEHAN:  Obviously we want to see the Iran regime dealt with, we want to make sure that they can’t continue the heinous attacks that they’ve been carrying out, not only through the Middle East Sarah, but you have to remember here in Australia they tried to carry out serious terrorist attacks and sort of partly succeeded in carrying out those attacks here in Australia. 

So we want this regime dealt with so it won’t be able to do the deadly work that it’s been doing now for over 40 years. So we want to see that eliminated. 

But what we want to see also right here in Australia is that the consequences of that war are limited as best they can be by the way the government deals with this national crisis, especially when it comes to fuel supply.

SARAH FERGUSON:  If I may just…

DAN TEHAN:  And that is our absolute focus,

SARAH FERGUSON:  Just a question on that. So four refineries were shut down during the time of the Coalition government. What more could you have done to keep those refineries open?

DAN TEHAN:  Well, let ABC fact check that Sarah, and I’d love you to, because two of those refineries were closed under the previous, the old Labor government, and you can have a look in these from the then minister, there are press releases announcing their closures and the funny thing was the transport minister at the time was Anthony Albanese and he didn’t say a word when it was announced that both those refineries were closing. 

So ABC fact check that one. What I’m focused on is the here and now. I went out today and met someone who’s got a business. They basically get hay from around the country, and they deliver it around the country and they are very, very concerned whether they’re going to have the diesel to be able to support the 25 employees that they’ve gotten to be able to do their job in delivering hay where it’s needed right across this nation.

That’s what we’ve got to focus on here and now. And one of the things we’ll work with the government on is our refiners, that our existing refineries that are here in this country that we put the package in to save them. What more can we do to get them producing more? That’s the type of thing we want to be working with the government on. 

What do we need to be doing to go overseas to make sure all contracts that aren’t being honoured and we’re aware that contracts now aren’t being honoured, where else can we go to get that petroleum. 

SARAH FERGUSON:  I’m interested in that point Dan Tehan. In terms of those contracts, where are you saying those contracts are not being honoured?

DAN TEHAN:  Well, there’s reports in the Australian Financial Review today that they aren’t being honoured out of China. And …

SARAH FERGUSON:  Have you been able to confirm that yourself?

DAN TEHAN:  I haven’t been able to verify that, but that’s one of the things I’d be very keen to discuss with the government as well because obviously there are other options that we can look at to be able to make sure that we’re getting that much needed fuel from elsewhere and places like the United States, for instance, is where we should be looking and this is going to need a whole of government approach. 

You’re going to need Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, you’re going to make sure that you’ve got Aus Trade, that you’ve got the Department of Industry basically scouring the world to make sure that we can continue to get the fuel that we need as well as obviously making sure that our existing stocks, we’re maximising everything we can here in Australia.

SARAH FERGUSON:  Would you support the government if it needed to make a decision to introduce fuel rationing?

DAN TEHAN:  Well, the problem at the moment is Sarah, we don’t know exactly what the stocks are, how much they’ve diminished, where the shortages are and what’s required. 

And one of the things we’ve been calling for additionally is greater transparency from the government about what’s going on. 

And that’s why here tonight I’m calling for the fuel tsar to be able to identify where the shortages are, what’s needed to address those shortages and also what is the plan to get the fuel to those areas. 

So that’s the sort of information that we need before we start being able to make calls regarding that. Although I did notice that the Deputy Prime Minister wouldn’t rule out rationing even though a week earlier Chris Bowen had said there was not a problem with supply here in Australia.

SARAH FERGUSON:  Dan Tehan, thank you very much indeed for joining us. I appreciate it.

DAN TEHAN:  Thanks Sarah.