Television Interview, Sunrise

SUBJECTS: Prime Minister’s National Address; Fuel Supply

HOST, NATALIE BARR: The PM warned the economic shocks caused by the Iran war will last for months, while vowing to protect Australia from the worst of it. It comes as energy experts warn the Federal government will have to impose harsher restrictions soon after the Easter holidays. For more, we're joined by the Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles. Good morning to you. So, look, the general feedback we're getting on that speech is a lack of detail, lack of a clear plan. One quote online was ‘it was a bit of nothing, a whole lot of nothing.’ How would you rate the PM's messaging last night?

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, RICHARD MARLES: Well, look, I think Australians have experienced the biggest shock to petrol and diesel prices ever. There is an understandable sense of anxiety out there and uncertainty about what the future holds, and that's completely reasonable because it is uncertain what the future holds. And I think in that moment, it's really important that the Prime Minister speaks directly to the Australian people about what we are experiencing, what may come down the track and what the government is doing. And that's exactly what the Prime Minister set out last night. I mean, we are halving the fuel excise, which is having an impact on the petrol prices in a good way right now. But that comes off the back of obviously seeing significant increases in fuel prices. We are doing a lot in respect of securing supply to Australia and we wanted to highlight that Australians themselves can play a role where you can prudently not use fuel, now that's a good thing to do. Now that's the place that we're at at the moment. It's uncertain what the future holds. Obviously, we'll all be watching what the President has to say in a few hours’ time, but whatever the future holds, we are ready to meet that.

BARR: Yeah. All of that, though, has been announced in the last week or so. The PM is getting on with life as normal, but in WA, you've got Premier Roger Cook declaring a fuel emergency. We're looking at the front page of The Nightly right here. Which is it?

MARLES: Well, I mean, we support states taking the steps that they are, and obviously Western Australia has a particular power in respect to fuel which it's exercised, and we support them in doing that. I mean, we're not shying away from the fact that what we are seeing is the biggest shock to petrol and diesel prices that we have ever seen. And that's why we've taken very significant steps in terms of doing what we can to reduce those prices or to ameliorate them. And that's what the decision in respect to the fuel excise represents, and also removing the heavy vehicle road user charge, for example. All of these are about trying to reduce the cost of fuel and transport. And as I say, we've done a lot in terms of securing supply, releasing fuel from our national stockpile, underwriting cargoes coming into the country, and these are important measures to see that there is supply. The simple fact here is the future is uncertain. What we are doing is working through with the states plans to deal with whatever eventuates. Right now the message to Australian people is, you know, go about your business, enjoy Easter, see your family and in that sense, use your car. But as we meet the next couple of weeks, if there are opportunities not to use your vehicles, then that's a good step to take. Not everyone has that opportunity, which is fair enough, but those who can, you should. And that's what the Prime Minister was articulating last night.

BARR: Okay, Richard Marles, thank you for your time.

MARLES: Pleasure.

END