Latest / The Front / Put down that fuel can: Albo’s here to help

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Put down that fuel can: Albo’s here to help · The Front

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, March thirty one, twenty twenty six. Step away
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: from the Jerry Can. The government says there's plenty of fuel,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: but it's going to make it much cheaper starting Wednesday
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: by harving the fuel excise and cutting road user charges.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Jim Chalmers says it's timely, temporary and responsible. But it
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: puts a giant hole in the budget. So why aren't
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: they rationing fuel, Why did it take so long to
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: get here?
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: And will it work?
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Jeff Chambers is here in just a moment.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: We're making fuel cheaper today because we understand that Australians
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: are under serious pressure.
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: Will reduce the cost of a sixty five liter tank
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: five out nineteen dollars.
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: Our government will reduce the heavy vehicle due to charge
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: to zero for three months to help trucks continue their
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: vital work for our nation.
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  Speaker 4: It is timely, it is temporary, and it is responsible.
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: We are asking people to buy as much fuel as
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: they need, as much fuel as they usually get, not more,
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: not less.
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  Speaker 4: The cost of what we are announcing today is two
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: point five five billion dollars another fifty three million dollars.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Jeff Chambers is The Australian's political editor. Jeff On Monday,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: the Prime Minister announced it pretty sweeping changes to the
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: way fuel is priced in Australia. First of all, are
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: you going to rush out and fill it?
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: You can't.
• 1:38
  Speaker 5: Well, I think there's a fair few people that will
• 1:40
  Speaker 5: probably wait until Wednesday when this very populous fuel exercise
• 1:44
  Speaker 5: cut kicks in. There'll probably be a few jerry cans
• 1:47
  Speaker 5: and some big traffic jams getting into the surveys. Look,
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: the fuel excise decision is another bit of evidence that
• 1:56
  Speaker 5: when this Albanezi government is under pressure, it goes to
• 2:01
  Speaker 5: the checkbook, the taxpayer funded checkbook, and it spends its
• 2:03
  Speaker 5: way out of a problem. We saw on Saturday the
• 2:07
  Speaker 5: Prime Minister and Chris Bowen, who's been under a lot
• 2:10
  Speaker 5: of pressure, say that they're going to underwrite more supply
• 2:15
  Speaker 5: coming into the country. So what does that mean. We
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: don't know how much it's going to cost, but with
• 2:19
  Speaker 5: the oil price the way it is, there is supply
• 2:22
  Speaker 5: out there, there are ships with oil on it and
• 2:24
  Speaker 5: the government will probably hide behind commercial and confidence, but
• 2:28
  Speaker 5: it will cost tens of millions of dollars to underwrite
• 2:31
  Speaker 5: petrol coming in, so they hope that that will sort
• 2:34
  Speaker 5: out the supply issue. We're already underwriting fuel refineries. There's
• 2:38
  Speaker 5: only a couple left in this country. They wouldn't be
• 2:41
  Speaker 5: open without taxpayer funded subsidies. And now we're having to
• 2:45
  Speaker 5: subsidize the price of petrol. And we've seen some that
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: will say that Angus Taylor on Friday has basically given.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: A green light for the government to move this way.
• 2:55
  Speaker 5: Well, petrol stations are running dry. Fuel's becoming unaffordable for
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: Australians and this government hasn't got off its task and
• 3:04
  Speaker 5: done its job. The speed of the way that the
• 3:07
  Speaker 5: government announced it on a Monday after our Friday announcement
• 3:11
  Speaker 5: shows that this was already ready.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: This was already prepared, it was already costed.
• 3:15
  Speaker 5: We're about six weeks out from the May twelve budget
• 3:18
  Speaker 5: and it was like, thank you very much, thanks for
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: giving us the green light to spend and this is
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: going to cost about two point five to five billion dollars.
• 3:25
  Speaker 5: And I think this is the issue with the major
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: parties is that they chase that sort of populous big
• 3:31
  Speaker 5: spendethon and no one's actually looking with more sort of
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: complex thought about future proofing Australia. Why was our fuel
• 3:40
  Speaker 5: stock so low? It's been low for years under the
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: coalition under Labor. Does anyone think that Chris Bowen put
• 3:47
  Speaker 5: fossil fuel petrol oil fuel reserves at the top of
• 3:51
  Speaker 5: his list when they won the election in twenty twenty two.
• 3:54
  Speaker 5: The answer to that is absolutely not.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Over the weekend, the Prime Minister was taking a very
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: sort of disappointed headmaster tone and it reminded me a
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: little bit of COVID Jeff, where he was saying he
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: was shocked to see photographs of people with multiple jerry
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: cans filling up at petrol stations. But isn't that a
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: problem that the government itself created by failing to do
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: maybe something like this or something else much much earlier
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: than now.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 5: Look, we do see this delayed response in times of crises.
• 4:22
  Speaker 5: We've talked about it on a bunch of fronts, and
• 4:24
  Speaker 5: they ultimately get there, but they have to get pushed
• 4:27
  Speaker 5: by someone else saying why don't you do this, or
• 4:30
  Speaker 5: they get some polling or some focus group research coming in,
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: or their backbenches are saying you have to do more,
• 4:36
  Speaker 5: and do it quicker that's really interesting, this sort of
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: COVID link. And I've been getting some PTSD because I
• 4:42
  Speaker 5: covered so many National Cabinet meetings Scott Morrison era, and
• 4:46
  Speaker 5: it's funny to hear the government talking about they don't
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: want to intervene, they don't want to mandate things, when
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: I do recall them being in opposition and coming up
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: with a lot of pretty draconian ideas.
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  Speaker 2: So it's a new world order.
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  Speaker 5: Now say, look, the Prime Minister has learned from that
• 5:04
  Speaker 5: COVID experience that unless he absolutely has to, doesn't want
• 5:08
  Speaker 5: to get in talk of rationing. There was that language
• 5:12
  Speaker 5: from some labor ministers and Chris Bowen in regards to
• 5:15
  Speaker 5: these people who are filling up their Jerry cans being
• 5:17
  Speaker 5: un Australian, and that tone was pretty quickly, you know,
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: it very much toned it back. We saw Chris Bowen
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: and Jim Chalmers standing very grim faced and next to
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: the Prime Minister. These are normally the attack dogs. And
• 5:32
  Speaker 5: now everyone's looking towards the budget and to thinking there
• 5:35
  Speaker 5: could be a recession by the end of the year.
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: What's going to happen to the housing market, how high
• 5:39
  Speaker 5: are costs going to be?
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  Speaker 2: And will this.
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  Speaker 5: Government now try and spend its way out of trying
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: to lower inflation a lot they did with the power
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: bills and try to avoid recession.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: And I think potentially.
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  Speaker 5: This Donald Trump Iran war has given them potentially an
• 5:58
  Speaker 5: excuse to squib it and to go full spending popular
• 6:02
  Speaker 5: sort of approach, the idea of.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: That being un Australian and filling up multiple jerry cans
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: at the petrol station. And it's a clear reference, I
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: think to the way people were hoarding so something like
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: toilet paper or tintune or bottle water during the COVID pandemic.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Is it on Australian or is it just kind of
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: sensible if you don't actually have any faith in the
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: government to make sure that the petrol station is not
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: going to run out next week.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a really good point.
• 6:29
  Speaker 5: We've basically ostracize the oil and gas industry in this country.
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: We've got so much of it here and we're importing
• 6:36
  Speaker 5: almost everything, And what other option do Australian motorists and
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: those who rely on petrol have if that's their livelihood
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: and they're struggling to pay the bills. So yeah, really
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: it comes down to a supply issue. That's my issue
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: with the excise. I mean, obviously people would want cheaper petrol,
• 6:53
  Speaker 5: but at the end of the day, we just need
• 6:55
  Speaker 5: to have that steady flow of supply. And it's quite
• 6:58
  Speaker 5: ironic now to see crisp and through gritted teeth having
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: to subsidize the importing of a fossil fuel in oil
• 7:07
  Speaker 5: and bring that petrol in and make it cheaper.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: And I think the only thing.
• 7:10
  Speaker 5: That Angus Taylor's announcement did to the Prime Minister and
• 7:14
  Speaker 5: Chris Bowen was really, I guess, make them quite angry
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: because he said to fund his fuel excise cut proposed cut,
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: he would cut a whole bunch of these EV and
• 7:23
  Speaker 5: green programs for labor.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: That's a no go zone.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Well, we saw last week reports that used EV sales
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: were actually up for the first time ever, so maybe
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Chris Bohm will get his way anyway.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean that's it. I've heard the same thing.
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: And you don't get the warranty right for the battery
• 7:41
  Speaker 5: and there are issues with the battery.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: So this is what we see.
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  Speaker 5: You know, the more elite folk who could buy that
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: new EV and get all that great subsidy, the trickle down.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: Element of that will mean that, yeah, you're going to.
• 7:51
  Speaker 5: Have other families buying secondhand vehicles with zero warranty. So
• 7:56
  Speaker 5: it's put a lot of pressure on Jim Charmer's six
• 8:00
  Speaker 5: weeks out from the budget.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Coming up, So why aren't we imposing limits at the
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: petrol pump. Let's just look at that idea of rationing though, Jeff,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: maybe this is on Australian I don't know, but would
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: a hundred leader ration have been such a bad idea
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: three weeks ago if the government had said, look, there's
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: nothing wrong with your supply, but to make sure that
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: there's enough for everybody and that nobody feels the need
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  Speaker 1: to panic by, we're going to limit you to one
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  Speaker 1: hundred leaders per stop at the petrol station, maybe per
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: week or per few days. Would that have been such
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: a bad idea and could it potentially have avoided this
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  Speaker 1: massive hit to the budget that they're now going to
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: have to deal with.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 5: I think there's a lot of trauma and paranoia amongst
• 9:02
  Speaker 5: the political class thinking about COVID and mandates that came down,
• 9:07
  Speaker 5: and I think that drove a lot of that resistance.
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  Speaker 5: I think Pauline Hanson had come out and talked about
• 9:13
  Speaker 5: that as well. So you see the major parties, she
• 9:15
  Speaker 5: does this to them where she'll come out with something
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: very early, then they try and find their way through
• 9:19
  Speaker 5: it and how they respond to it. I think it's
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: difficult in the fact that you've got suburban motorists, You've
• 9:25
  Speaker 5: got regional motorists out of suburban motorists.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: So how do you get that rationing level right?
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  Speaker 5: Cars generally are more efficient than they were many years ago,
• 9:33
  Speaker 5: so I personally probably fill up once a week now,
• 9:37
  Speaker 5: where in the old days I probably would have filed
• 9:39
  Speaker 5: that more than that. So I think it came down
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  Speaker 5: to that. But it was pretty obvious to me that
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: the government were very flat footed. I think as soon
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: as the Iran War started, you surely thought about supply
• 9:50
  Speaker 5: chain and for US our strategic reserve being in the
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: US that was never going to come our way, so
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: they should have had a plan in place, and unfortunately,
• 9:59
  Speaker 5: I just as I said earlier, I don't think Chris
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: Bowen when he came in in twenty twenty two, would
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: have looked at our strategic reserves just how fragile they
• 10:07
  Speaker 5: are in that thirty day mark and gone, we need
• 10:10
  Speaker 5: to prioritize this to protect our sovereignty and to protect
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: our families motor workers. It's sort of like he's learning
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: it on the job. We've had shortages of ad Blue
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: during COVID. It wasn't because they couldn't come out of China,
• 10:22
  Speaker 5: but people were hoarding it. So you've got to get
• 10:25
  Speaker 5: the actual suppliers sitting around the table.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: You've got to know who they are.
• 10:29
  Speaker 5: There's also we had gas issues in terms of gas shortfalls,
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: so you bring in all the gas bosses and you
• 10:35
  Speaker 5: lay the law down. So I've heard that there are
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: some independent fuel and other sort of private companies who
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: are hoarding as well because it's not in their best
• 10:44
  Speaker 5: financial interests. So it's going to be a pretty costly
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: exercise over a few months because we weren't prepared for this.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Well, Jim Thomas has clearly got a new mantra, and
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: it's giving me flashbacks to budgets a couple of budgets ago.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Jeff.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: It's temporary, it's timely, and it's repet so we've got
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: six more weeks to hear that until budget night. I
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: hope you enjoy it.
• 11:04
  Speaker 5: Yeah, Well, this was supposed to be his big reforming budget.
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: He was supposed to show us how he was going
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: to lift productivity and everything's been blown out of the water.
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: And the Prime minister's a pretty cautious fellow and his
• 11:16
  Speaker 5: Treasurer has a lot of ambition.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: So who wins the day?
• 11:20
  Speaker 5: And I think given the situation where it's been a
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: while since we've seen these cost of living sweeteners, they
• 11:26
  Speaker 5: didn't do it at my EFO. I think that there's
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: going to be more to come on this. The problem
• 11:31
  Speaker 5: is if inflation keeps going up, where does this stop?
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: For How long can the government think they can keep
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: propping up household budgets when the cost of everything keeps
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: just going through the roof And the projections are is
• 11:43
  Speaker 5: that we may well fall into recession and those cost
• 11:47
  Speaker 5: of living pressures might just keep rising and rising.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Well, Jeff, thank you very much and I'll see you
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: at the petrol station on Wednesday.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: I see there.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Thanks, hopefully we'll see you there too. Jeff Chambers is
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: The Australian's political editor. You can read all his unrivaled
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: analysis at the Australian dot com do AU