SALLY SARA, HOST: Well, Catherine King is the Federal Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government and joins me now. Minister, welcome back to Breakfast.

MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT CATHERINE KING: Good to be with you, Sally.

SARA: What do you make of these latest comments from Donald Trump urging allies to go and get their own oil?

KING: Well, we've said right at the start of all of this, we wouldn’t be running a running commentary on everything that President Trump is saying around a range of matters. And so, we'll really leave that with them. What we're doing, there's no doubt that the war in the Middle East...

SARA: Do you take it seriously, though? This is the President of the US. This is the party that started conflict.

KING: Yes, of course, we take everything that our allies say very seriously. But we obviously weren't consulted about the war in in the Middle East, but we are bearing the consequences of what has occurred, and the whole world is. And so, of course, what we are doing through our efforts here, is to try and shield Australians from the worst of it in the best way that we can. We have, of course, said very clearly our view is that this war, the sooner it ends, the better it is for our economy and the world's economy as well. We have already, at the request of the UAE provided assistance in defence, particularly because of the number of Australians we have over there. And we'll continue through diplomatic efforts to talk with the US about when they see they're going to exit, what the consequences of that are going to be.

But certainly, my job as Infrastructure and Transport Minister has been to look at how, domestically, do we respond to what has been an increase in prices on fuel because of a war in the Middle East.

SARA: Is a domestic response going to be enough to ensure that we have adequate fuel supplies, or would the government reconsider sending further military assets and or naval ships into the conflict area?

KING: Well, I'll leave those for the Minister for Defence, but in essence, we've made it fairly clear that we have provided assistance for the UAE where we've been asked in terms of defence. I'm not aware of any specific requests from the US in relation to their requests, and I'll leave that to the Minister for Defence to comment on any of those. But you know, obviously we have been making substantial diplomatic efforts to other countries. You've seen the Prime Minister, with the Prime Minister of Singapore, work pretty closely. He's done that with a number of countries. Our Foreign Affairs Minister, Defence Minister, and our Climate and Energy Minister are doing the same. The world is facing, because of the war in the Middle East, a significant impact on all of our economies, and those representations will continue to be made.

SARA: Minister, how long can fuel supplies remain at a workable level in Australia, if the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed?

KING: Well, you're seeing the world adjust already now, so many of the suppliers of oil are seeking alternate markets, seeking alternate routes, and that is all working its way through the system. At this stage, as you're aware from the Climate and Energy Minister, our supplies remain as they were when this conflict started. We are obviously watching and monitoring that very closely to prepare for the longer - obviously the Strait is closed, the longer the war continues, then the longer the impacts are on our economy and our domestic supply. But at this stage, as of today, we continue to receive the amounts of oil and then are able to refine that here in this country, in the same way we have done previously.

SARA: There's been a lot of focus on the price of diesel and also petrol. What's the situation at the moment for jet fuel in Australia?

KING: So certainly, in terms of jet fuel, again, we continue to receive the amounts that we have done previously, we've still got the minimum stockholding. We didn't draw down on that at all. We only drew down on the stockholding for diesel and petrol. So that minimum stockholding obligation for jet fuel remains. Things remain steady, but there is no doubt that the price of jet fuel, the price of diesel, the price of petrol is having an impact on businesses right the way, and you're seeing various responses to that both internationally and here domestically. And the longer this goes on, the more those impacts are being felt.

SARA: Earlier this week, National Cabinet agreed to a four-stage plan to respond to fuel supply issues, but some groups, such as the National Farmers' Federation want more details about how fuel supplies will be secured for activities such as food production. Is the government doing this work now and do you expect to make those details public?

KING: Well, obviously, out of National Cabinet on Monday came the four levels of action, the first, plan and prepare, which we had been doing, two, keeping Australia moving, which is the sort of current level that we're at the moment. So the announcements we've made around the road user charge in the transport space, the halving of the fuel excise, the work on the Export Finance Act, which is really important in trying to secure more supply into Australia and to underwrite some of the risks that are occurring for some of the companies seeking that supply. So all of that is being done. And then the third level, taking targeted action, we're not there. But of course, we are doing preparatory work for all of those phases right the way across government.

SARA: Minister, just briefly, we've got about a minute up our sleeve. After National Cabinet, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the states and territories had committed to providing GST relief, but leaders have failed to agree on a plan to return windfall GST revenue raised from higher fuel prices. Is the Federal Government disappointed by that?

KING: Well, Premiers and Chief Ministers agreed in the room on National Cabinet that they didn't think that it was fair that they would be receiving a GST windfall because of the spike in petrol prices. How they intend to return that or provide relief in states and territories is still being worked through. It is really quite a complex issue for them to work through, but it's not beyond them. We're helping from our end with petrol prices by halving the excise. And we, of course, encourage states and territories to forego that GST on fuel as well. And how they do that is still being worked through and understand it's a complex thing to do, but that's what they agreed in the room to do.

SARA: And just very briefly, you're introducing a package of bills to Parliament today to strengthen aviation consumer protection. What are those changes?

KING: Well, we're actually introducing the framework, for the first time for Australia, to have an aviation consumer protection regime, which is underpinned by, in essence, a charter of minimum standards that Australians can expect in the event that there is something that goes wrong, they don't get the service that they expected from their airlines or their airports. Today I'm introducing the framework for that. There'll be a lot of other supporting regulation that comes under that but really the outline of that - an ombudsperson for people to be able to complain to and this protections charter of minimum standards. First time we've actually had that, it's been a voluntary scheme and really this is about getting improvement of services in aviation across the board.

SARA: Catherine King, thank you very much.

KING: Really good to be with you.

SARA: You're listening there to Catherine King, the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government.