00:00We have seen prices reduced across most capital cities as our excise cut flows through to
00:06Bowers, not just ours but in addition to that of course the additional cut as a result of
00:13the decision by States and Territories on Thursday morning that we foreshadowed last
00:18week would occur.
00:20That is a good thing.
00:21Fewer stations have shortages today than before Easter and I'd like to thank every Australian
00:27that has played a part in this outcome, however of course some shortages do remain particularly
00:33with diesel and we continue to monitor this very closely.
00:37My Government will continue to take every action we can to shield Australians from the impact
00:43of this war.
00:44This includes continuing to shore up our fuel supply.
00:48This week on Thursday I will head to Singapore for the annual leaders meeting with Prime
00:55Minister Lawrence Wong that will take place on Friday.
00:59This will be important and we'll continue discussions on securing our trade in petrol, diesel and LNG.
01:07The visit will continue my Government's regional engagement that I've been involved with, that
01:13Minister Bowen, Minister Wong and others have been engaged with as well right across the region
01:20including of course the Trade Minister, Minister Farrell.
01:23Singapore is an important relationship with Australia and what this does is show that the
01:32work that we've done over the last four years in building relations with ASEAN and other partners
01:40including with Japan and South Korea, our traditional trading partners in North Asia pays dividends
01:47at difficult times because we've been able to have those conversations and work together
01:52which is what we will do.
01:54Singapore is Australia's largest two-way trade partner and investor in South East Asia and
02:00one of our closest strategic and economic partners.
02:04The visit follows Australia and Singapore's joint commitment to keep fuel flowing between both
02:11countries and to work together to strengthen energy supply chain resilience.
02:15Together we share concern over the situation in the Middle East including the consequences
02:21for both of our nations.
02:23We share a deep strategic trust.
02:26I regard Prime Minister Wong as a friend of Australia and the fact that we have reconstituted
02:33these annual leaders meetings is very important.
02:37My Government has spent four years building our relationship with the region.
02:41It is moments like these that these relationships really matter.
02:45Australia is facing a more uncertain world and therefore the certainty of those clear close relationships
02:54is more important than ever.
02:57We don't need to wait for this global crisis to be over.
03:00We have to build resilience into the system.
03:03We are currently in a secure position however engaging with our international partners is
03:09an important part of keeping our fuel supply flowing.
03:14Thanks very much PM.
03:15Well a lot of Australians worked very hard over the Easter break to make sure that our fuel
03:20was flowing to the regions and to service stations and despite the fact that demand for petrol
03:26and diesel was 30% higher this Easter than last Easter.
03:29We continue to see each day the service station outages fall.
03:34During the weekend I held daily press conferences to update on the service station numbers and
03:39happy to do so again this morning.
03:41In New South Wales we have 125 service stations without diesel.
03:45That's 5% of service stations.
03:47That's down 17% on yesterday, 34% with no fuel.
03:51That's down 5% on yesterday.
03:53In Victoria we have 40% without diesel.
03:56That's down 11% so that's 2% of Victorian service stations, 29% with no unleaded petrol.
04:03In Queensland 34% without diesel, that's also 2% and 30% without unleaded petrol.
04:09South Australia 7% with no diesel, 5% with no unleaded petrol.
04:12Western Australia 20% without diesel, 32% without unleaded petrol.
04:17Tasmania 7% without diesel, 6% with no unleaded petrol.
04:20Northern Territory 4% each, no diesel, no unleaded, and ACT 4% with no diesel and 1% without
04:28unleaded petrol.
04:28That's a total of 241 service stations without diesel across Australia today.
04:33That's 3% of our service stations.
04:35Also on Saturday, as I do each Saturday, I updated the Australian people on how much fuel we have on
04:41hand.
04:41But just to remind, we're seeing those levels stay pretty static, which tells me that the fuel is going out
04:48the door at a very high rate to the regions in particular, as it needs to, but also coming in
04:53the door.
04:54So we have 39 days worth of petrol, that's 1.7 billion litres, 30 days worth of jet fuel, that's
04:59847 million litres, and 29 days worth of diesel, that's 2.6 billion litres.
05:04Again, in my discussions with the fuel companies over the weekend, over Easter, again, lots of people across the industry
05:10were working very hard and now have locked in confidence well into May.
05:16It had been into April, but now well into May in terms of fuel that they've been able to procure
05:22and lock in and have contractual obligations to deliver to Australia, and that's a good thing.
05:26Also, a shout out to Export Finance Australia, which again has been working over the weekend.
05:31A lot of people didn't take much time off over the weekend to make sure that that legislation which we
05:36passed last week is being fully implemented and deals are being done, and I'll provide further updates as some of
05:42those deals are finalised in coming days.
05:44But again, a big shout out as the PM said to everyone who, patriotically over the weekend, worked hard to
05:50get fuel to where it's needed, and to those Australians who went about their business as we encouraged, did what
05:55they normally would do but didn't take more fuel than they need, get the same amount of fuel as you
05:59normally get, no more, no less, is the right thing to do at the moment, and so many Australians across
06:04the board did that.
06:04So a big thank you to everyone who did that.
Comments