Television Interview, ABC Afternoon Briefing

Subjects: Middle East Conflict, Fuel Supply, Tax Policy

STEPHANIE BORYS [HOST]: Now, I want to bring in my political panel for the day. Peter Khalil is the Assistant Defence Minister, and Maria Kovacic is the Shadow Assistant Minister for Productivity and Deregulation. Good afternoon to you both. 

PETER KHALIL [ASSISTANT MINISTER]: Good afternoon, Steph. 

MARIA KOVACIC [LIBERAL SENATOR]: Good afternoon. 

STEPHANIE BORYS: Peter, I'll start with you. What do you make of Donald Trump's language threatening that a whole civilisation would die if that deal with Iran wasn't met? 

PETER KHALIL: Well, Steph, I overheard part of your previous interview with Dan Tehan, so I was a bit flummoxed as to why he couldn't quite clearly say, as the Prime Minister has said, that that language is inappropriate. It's not appropriate, and it's important to call that out, as many world leaders have done, and as the Prime Minister has.

I think it's important also to note that there is a ceasefire, which is very welcome and a very positive development because of the impact that we've seen on the global economy on everyday citizens, obviously in Australia, and the importance of hopefully that lasting so that we can start to see some de‑escalation on a more permanent basis. 

But the government, Australian Government and many other governments have been calling for de‑escalation, so we welcome the ceasefire that has been agreed to. 

STEPHANIE BORYS: Maria, how would you describe Donald Trump's language with that threat specifically about killing off a whole civilisation? 

MARIA KOVACIC: Those comments made me uncomfortable, and I don't think that they are appropriate. I think in terms of what's more broadly occurring here is that it is positive to see the ceasefire, or the interim ceasefire, occur. I think that's important because it allows the supply of fuel to come in and out of the Strait. That's of significance, not just for the Australian economy but for the global economy, that's very important. 

I think it's also important that we acknowledge that, you know, what has been occurring in Iran over almost the last 50 years has been the conduct of, you know, a terrible regime that has persecuted its own people. 

So, we have a very complex set of circumstances here. There are many lessons for us domestically here in relation to the impacts of this conflict, as there have been globally. 

STEPHANIE BORYS: Maria, just sticking with you, do you think the fuel excise cut that was announced by the government, that in fact the Coalition was pushing for as well, could end up being overkill given we are starting to see the Strait open up? Maybe, you know, fuel prices will continue to go down. Was it needed, the three months? 

MARIA KOVACIC: I think the three-month fuel excise cut was appropriate. Time will tell how long it will take for those price reductions to flow back through into our fuel system. 

I think what's also important to understand is that this ceasefire is temporary. It is not something that, by any stretch of the imagination, is confirmed as being permanent. We certainly hope that it is, and we hope that all efforts, diplomatic and otherwise, are put into ensuring that peace can be restored and that the Strait is reopened permanently.

But ultimately, what we need to do is ensure that those fuel supplies are stable in Australia. We have seen the price hikes go very, very high, particularly for diesel. We've seen petrol stations run out of diesel. You were speaking about that earlier in your show. On my way into work this morning, I came across two petrol stations with no diesel here in metropolitan Sydney. So, I think we need to ensure that all of those elements are in line. 

And just to be very clear, we have been pushing for that cutting fuel excise for some two weeks before the government acted, but we also did include some anti‑inflationary offsets that the Government didn't include. So, just for transparency, there is that difference there. 

STEPHANIE BORYS: Peter, with supply verse demand and what we're seeing at petrol stations, the government is insisting there is enough supply. So, just sort of explain to us then why are petrol stations running out of fuel if the supply is just as high as what it used to be? Like something kind of doesn't seem to make sense there. 

PETER KHALIL: Yeah, it's a really good question, and it can be somewhat confusing, but the supply is higher than it has been for 15 years and the reserves. In fact, there were 81 cargo ships that came through in March. Six got cancelled. We replaced those six and added another three, and we've locked in another 55 for April. And of course, the Prime Minister's off to Singapore for meetings; the Deputy Prime Minister is in Japan. So, we're doing the work at that high level to ensure supply is locked in with our partners in the region for the coming months. 

The issue around demand is that there's been a real spike in demand, and obviously, with the war and people, you know, purchasing more than they have in the past, that has been a real impact on demand. And of course there is—and we hope, and I agree with Maria, that the ceasefire holds and that the ships start to move through the Straits of Hormuz—but there's a lot of work to do there, and there's a lot of uncertainty around that, but it is a welcome relief.

And so, we have tried to alleviate the cost pressures on consumers, on Australians at the bowser, by cutting the excise in a targeted way for three months—that's 32 cents that it comes down by. We've actually increased the production of 100 million barrels a day out of our refineries by changing some of the threshold standards so we can have more diesel and more petrol. 

And when it comes to rural and regional areas, obviously, it's quite complicated, but there are spot market differences in our use of purchase on the spot market. So, there's been distribution blockages because it had been going into the metro areas. 

But there is a decline—the Minister, Minister Bowen, has articulated the drop in the number of petrol stations that are out of fuel. It's down to 2 per cent or 3 per cent in some of the ‑‑ 

STEPHANIE BORYS: Around 3 per cent nationwide. 

PETER KHALIL: ‑‑ the states and is—yeah, nationwide. So that is good news because it is coming down as well as far as access. So, there's a lot of work to do, and I think it's important that we provide that cost-of-living relief for Australians for a targeted period of time while we go through this tough period. It is a tough period for the entire global economy.

STEPHANIE BORYS: Talking of cost of living and sort of moving away from the war and more back to policies generally here in Australia, the Nationals leader Matt Canavan was speaking at the National Press Club today with a number of policies. One of them was pushing the need for income splitting to help out families with tax returns, keeping more money in their pockets. Maria, do you think that should be explored? 

MARIA KOVACIC: Look, I think the main premise of what Senator Canavan was talking about was making life easier for Australian families, and I think we should explore a number of different things that will make life easier. 

And I think really the story behind this is for the past four years Australians have seen a terrible decline in their living standards. Australians have seen, you know, their interest rates go up 14 times and they've only gone down three times, but each of the three times that the rates have gone down the Prime Minister and his Treasurer have gone, "Yay us, look what a great job we've done", but when they've gone up they've pointed to other pressures. 

Ultimately, Australia is in a worse position than our global contemporaries because of the excessive spending of this Albanese Labor government. That is a reality. We cannot hide from that. The RBA has spoken about this, you know, Australian economists have spoken about that. 

So, the different ideas and the different conversations about how we make life easier for Australians, how we actually make sure that Australians have more money left in their pocket every week, is an important one. 

STEPHANIE BORYS: Well, unfortunately, time—sorry, Peter, if you want to say something very quickly. 

PETER KHALIL: Very quickly. I've got to disagree with Maria on this one. We were in agreement up until now. But after nine years of doing nothing on reform, on tax reform when the Coalition were in government, and providing deficit after deficit, we delivered two surpluses in the Budget, and we are looking at reforms that address intergenerational unfairness, and these are really important steps that have to be taken, and only Labor governments make these reforms. 

You can talk about it a lot, Maria, but you had your chance. Nine years, you did nothing. We are taking steps to actually address these issues. 

 MARIA KOVACIC: Well, Peter, respectfully, it's your time to act. 

STEPHANIE BORYS: Well, as much as I would love you both to argue, I'm so sorry, we do have to leave it. The joys of deadlines on TV. Peter Khalil, Maria Kovacic, thank you for your time this afternoon on Afternoon Briefing. 

PETER KHALIL: Thanks very much. 

ENDS