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Petrol panic: a new plan to release millions of barrels of oil · The Front

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  Speaker 1: Today's biggest news from The Australian. I'm Claire Harvey with
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  Speaker 1: the Front's afternoon headlines. A new twist in the case
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  Speaker 1: of Iran's women's soccer team. One woman who sought asylum
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  Speaker 1: in Australia on Tuesday night has now changed her mind
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  Speaker 1: and decided to return home. That was after seven members
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  Speaker 1: of the traveling squad, including one staff member, sought asylum
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  Speaker 1: in Australia. Their remaining teammates are on the way back
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  Speaker 1: to Tehran via Malaysia and Turkey. Home Affairs Minister Tony
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  Speaker 1: Burke said Border Force officials repeatedly spoke to every team member,
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  Speaker 1: offering them the chance to stay in Australia. Burke said
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  Speaker 1: there were accompanying officials who belonged to the Islamic Revolutionary
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  Speaker 1: Guard Corps and none of those were offered humanitarian visas.
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  Speaker 2: Here's Tony Burke, Australia's objective here was not to force
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  Speaker 2: people to make a particular decision where not that sort
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  Speaker 2: of nation.
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  Speaker 3: What we wanted to make sure of was that sometimes
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  Speaker 3: possible for the first time, these individuals were meeting a
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  Speaker 3: government that said the choices up to you as Australians.
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  Speaker 2: We should be proud.
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  Speaker 3: That we're that sort of country. They are now on
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  Speaker 3: humanitarian visas and the processing will soon start for them
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  Speaker 3: to move to what's called a resolution of status, which
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  Speaker 3: is a permanent visa. I have no intention, after everything
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  Speaker 3: that these individuals have gone through for them to have
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  Speaker 3: to fight through the courts for permanent status.
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  Speaker 1: In Australia, Australians are queuing at petrol pumps to fill
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  Speaker 1: up and farmers are already running out of diesel as
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  Speaker 1: the Iran war sends. Oil and gas price is crazy,
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  Speaker 1: and now governments are considering a huge release of oil
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  Speaker 1: reserves to increase supply. The International Energy Agency is holding
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  Speaker 1: a vote of its thirty two member nations, including Australia,
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  Speaker 1: the United States, Britain, Germany and Japan, on whether to
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  Speaker 1: release emergency stocks of oil. EVA member countries currently hold
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  Speaker 1: over one point two billion barrels of oil in public
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  Speaker 1: emergency stocks, and global oil demand is roughly one hundred
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  Speaker 1: barrels per day. If the member nations vote to go ahead,
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  Speaker 1: the IEA would release more than one hundred and eighty
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  Speaker 1: two million barrels. That's the number IEA member countries released
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  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two when Russia invaded Ukraine. Energy prices
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  Speaker 1: are already through the roof in Australia and elsewhere, and
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  Speaker 1: the war between Israel, Iran, and the United States has
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  Speaker 1: caused huge disruption to oil supplies as ballistic missiles fly
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  Speaker 1: across the Persian Gulf and Iran threatens to blow up
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  Speaker 1: shipping that tries to get through the narrow Strait of Hormuz,
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  Speaker 1: through which twenty percent of oil supplies usually go. Oil
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  Speaker 1: prices are fluctuating wildly. They soared when Operation Epic Fury
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  Speaker 1: started in late February, but have now fallen again as
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  Speaker 1: markets try to work out how long the conflict will
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  Speaker 1: drag on. Big oil relief can backfire. That decision in
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty two to release oil in response to Russia's
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  Speaker 1: invasion of Ukraine. It initially sent prices up instead of
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  Speaker 1: down because markets interpreted the decision as an alarming sign
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  Speaker 1: that the conflict was serious. So that brings us to Australia.
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  Speaker 1: Most of the oil we import comes from Korea, Singapore
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  Speaker 1: and Malaysia, but those countries have bought it from the
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  Speaker 1: Middle East in the first place, so the oil price
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  Speaker 1: changes haven't yet flowed through to the oil Australia's buying,
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  Speaker 1: but prices are up anyway because of panic buying. Australian
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  Speaker 1: fuel wholesalers say they're getting huge orders from farmers and
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  Speaker 1: businesses stockpiling fuels, including diesel that's sending prices up. Australia
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  Speaker 1: does hold strategic reserves of petrol, diesel and jet fuel
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  Speaker 1: enough to last us about a month, which some analysts
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  Speaker 1: say is nowhere near enough to shield us if supply
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  Speaker 1: is cut off from overseas. Unletted petrol at the Bowser
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  Speaker 1: is zooming towards the two dollar mark, up more than
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  Speaker 1: seven percent in a week, as some wholesalers ration their
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  Speaker 1: deliveries to petrol stations.
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  Speaker 2: Tomorrow.
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  Speaker 1: On the front, I'm talking to our national editor, Dennis Shanahan,
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  Speaker 1: the sharpest observer in Canberra, about a new twist in
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  Speaker 1: the soapie that is the National Party. They quit the
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  Speaker 1: coalition twice, got rid of a Liberal leader, rejoined the coalition,
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  Speaker 1: and now they've got a new leader of their own,
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  Speaker 1: Matt Canavan. I'm going to find out if Dennis likes
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  Speaker 1: him more than he likes David Littlprout, the leader Dennis
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  Speaker 1: called stupid back in January.
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  Speaker 2: Come back to the front first
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  Speaker 1: Thing in the morning for that, and in the meantime
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  Speaker 1: check us out at Theaustralian dot com dot au