00:01Well, it'll be the state's Energy Minister, Penny Sharp, playing the role of King Arthur
00:06today with her fuel security round table.
00:10It'll really be a meeting of minds of some of those peak industry groups, including not
00:15only the transport and freight sector, but naturally fuel distribution, as well as primary
00:22producers who will be putting their heads together to try and determine the state's
00:26long-term fuel security.
00:29Now, it is important to mention that we have heard repeatedly from the government that
00:33certainly here in New South Wales, this is not a supply side issue.
00:37In fact, we had heard from the Energy Minister earlier today that the latest estimate that
00:43the New South Wales government have is that only around 30 out of 3,000 petrol stations
00:49across New South Wales are currently in a shortage.
00:52But what we are seeing is price rises in localised areas.
00:57In fact, we had heard from Stephen Barley, he's the state member for Blacktown, that there
01:03are some parts of Western Sydney where the price of a litre of fuel has increased almost
01:0860 cents.
01:09It really is primary producers who are also really feeling the squeeze over that demand-side
01:15price increases.
01:16We understand that it's mainly smaller distributors who are really feeling the pinch.
01:22Those larger distributors have had contracts locked in, in some cases, for months and really
01:27aren't being affected by these price increases.
01:30But it's those buying it at the spot market price who are paying an enormous amount of money,
01:36certainly considering the prices that we had seen in the last few months.
01:41Now, Penny Sharp has made explicitly clear that while the state believes that they certainly
01:46have the reserves in place and are looking at long-term security, particularly for state
01:51infrastructure like hospitals, she does acknowledge that those headwinds further north could potentially
01:58change that scenario.
01:59Let's take a quick listen to what she had to say.
02:01We are looking at all of the options.
02:04We need to take this day by day.
02:05It's a complicated situation that we're not in control of.
02:08We've got local impacts as a result of a global situation.
02:12But look, what we are doing today is feeding into what we can deal with now, which is that
02:17supply is OK, but we've got problems with distribution and we want to use all the levers we can there.
02:21But we are also planning for if it's what it looks like in two weeks' time, in a month's
02:25time, if this situation isn't resolved.
02:27We obviously hope for the best, but it's our role to plan for the worst and that's what
02:33we're also doing.
02:34Max, how are other states dealing with the fuel crisis?
02:39Well, Robbenvale and Harter, two towns in Victoria's northwest over the weekend, became what is
02:44believed to be the first two towns in Victoria to completely run out of fuel.
02:49Thankfully for those in those two towns, we understand that they did get a resupply on
02:54Sunday afternoon.
02:55But it really does speak to primarily the tyranny of distance, that distribution factor, which
03:01had obviously been highlighted there by the New South Wales Energy Minister, Penny Sharp.
03:06We've also seen in Western Australia, particularly trying to get fuel supplies into more remote
03:12parts of WA.
03:13The government have effectively relaxed the laws around how much cargo a road train can
03:19carry in Western Australia to hopefully allow more supply into those remote parts of that
03:26state.
03:26And of course, on the federal level, the federal government last week announcing 100 million
03:32litres from Australia's fuel reserves have now been introduced into the domestic market.
03:38That will hopefully bring those prices down.
03:41It is of course bad news for consumers across Australia, though.
03:45We are expecting to hear word from the Reserve Bank tomorrow as to whether or not there will
03:50be an interest rate rise.
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