00:00We are working to bring the price of fuel down to make more fuel here and to keep it on
00:05shore.
00:06We must dig and we must drill. We need more Australian oil for Australians.
00:13Australia currently buys about 90 percent of its liquid fuel resources from overseas
00:20and as the nation grapples with the ongoing fuel crisis it's prompted questions about why
00:26Australia does not create its own supply chain. As a mineral rich country it seems like an easy
00:32solution to an ongoing question but the history of Australia's fuel production is a lot more
00:39complicated. Australia only has two refineries still in operation. One is in Geelong, Victoria
00:47and the other is in Brisbane, Queensland. But two decades ago Australia operated seven refineries.
00:55Over the years refineries closed down as they were unable to compete with the efficiency of
01:02international refineries. But in simple terms over time it became cheaper for the nation to
01:09import its fuel resources than to produce fuel on its own. Australia has very strict environmental
01:17policies as well so this means there are often so many hurdles to approving fuel refinery work.
01:24Most of Australia's refined oil comes from South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan and these
01:33countries mostly rely on crude oil from the Middle East. With unrest and uncertainty in the Middle East
01:40right now the world faces a challenge in securing and safeguarding its crude oil supplies. And this was
01:48a challenge that was predicted in the 2015 inquiry into Australia's transport energy resilience and
01:56sustainability. In recent years stockpiling of Australia's fuel supply also faced additional
02:02challenges due to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. To address the difficulty the federal government unveiled a
02:11fuel security package in the 2020 to 2021 budget. The government intended to invest hundreds of
02:19millions of dollars into storing fuel domestically and supporting local refineries. And this would
02:26mean Australia would have bigger stockpiles of fuel to use when global transportation was under threat.
02:33The fuel security bill then passed in June 2021 which included financial help for the two remaining
02:41refineries in Australia. At the time the federal government wanted to ensure the two refineries were
02:47operational until at least mid-2027. If prices at the pump are anything to go by then Australia's fuel
02:56shortage definitely feels like an insurmountable crisis. But the present-day crisis is not the
03:02first time Australians have grappled with a fuel shortage. In the 1970s a revolution in Iran caused
03:09significant uncertainty in the global oil market. Throughout the 1970s fuel prices skyrocketed
03:16when Arab oil producers placed a hefty embargo on some countries. Then in 1979 the Iranian revolution
03:25caused a second oil shock. At the time Australia had multiple working oil refineries and was largely
03:32self-sufficient with its production. But fuel ration was still imposed via a number plate system.
03:39Car registrations ending with odd numbers will only be served on odd days. According to the executive
03:45director of the International Energy Agency, IEA, that fuel crisis 40 years ago sparked major policy
03:55responses globally. Namely, it increased reliance on nuclear power and the need to invest in fuel
04:02efficient cars. It also encouraged better diplomatic relations to ensure there were multiple countries
04:10from whom to import oil. Now the IEA predicts the US-Iran conflict might be a catalyst for the world
04:18to
04:18invest in electric vehicles. Five years ago only five percent of the cars sold in the world was electric
04:27and last year 25 percent of all the cars sold was electric and I think what happened now
04:34will give a further boost to transportation sector among other areas.
04:39is
04:41Amen.
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