CHRIS BOWEN, MINISTER FOR CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY: Thanks for coming, everyone. Strengthening Australia's fuel security is being important for our government and for all Australians. And of course, in the face of the most difficult international circumstances imaginable, Australia has been resilient. Government and industry working together to ensure that, despite the fact that some political parties demanded rationing, some political parties said that rationing was inevitable. We've got through this current crisis in a situation where our fuel security has remained strong. In my regular updates, to the Australian people on Saturdays we have confirmed that we have been able to secure the fuel we need. Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister, and myself are working together with industry to ensure Australia's fuel security. But we've also had the view that we need to strengthen our security not just for today, but for the years to come. And so today, Catherine and I are announcing the next steps to do that. We're releasing two papers which outline the next steps on two important matters. As you know, we've made it clear that we need to strengthen our own fuel security, liquid fuel security, by holding more fuel in Australia. While we got through the last- this crisis well internationally, it would have been better if we'd had more fuel in Australia when we came to office. We had two refineries when we left office in 2013, there were six. When we came back, there were two, and of course our fuel stocks were held in Texas. We've worked to improve that, and we want to improve it even more in the years to come. In the budget, we announced that we would establish a Australian strategic fuel reserve, a government-owned reserve of a billion litres, to ensure that we have, in the ownership of the Australian people, a buffer to get us through difficult times, we also announced to increase the minimum stock obligation of the fuel that has to be held in Australia by Australian companies. And today, I'm releasing a consultation paper about the finer details, about how to implement that, about where the Australian strategic fuel reserve should be held, for example, the regional areas proposing that we consider holding some in each part of Australia. How quickly we should build the reserve, who should manage it on behalf of the government, etc. And also how we increase the minimum stock obligation, at what time frame, and also some consultation about the support mechanism for the two refineries that exist, and as you know, we're working with states. The Prime Minister has announced with Western Australia, in particular, a feasibility study on expanding our refining capacity, and we'll continue that work as well.

Secondly, Catherine and I are releasing a discussion paper about low-carbon liquid fuels. We've always had the view that it's a two-pronged approach: increasing supply of existing fuels, traditional fuels-petrol, diesel, jet fuel. But also developing Australia's great opportunity in the alternative industry of low-carbon liquid fuels, which is great for fuel security, great for emissions, and also great for Australian agriculture and industry. Kath will say a lot more about that. These are two complementary approaches working together to ensure that our fuel security is strengthened while our emissions come down. You know, Australians are buying EVs in great numbers. There's no doubt about that. But it will take some time for that to play out. There are other elements of the transport system and heavy industry, which will require low-carbon liquid fuels, which is a great opportunity for farmers and others, and Catherine will say more about that. So this is a good step forward on strengthening Australia's build security.

CATHERINE KING, MINISTER FOR INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT: Thanks very much, Chris. It's great to be able to join you here with these announcements of the release of these consultation papers today. I think this year, if anything, has highlighted just how important it is for us to build resilience into our fuel supply chain. The two consultations are just about that, about preparing us for the longer term. Transport is by far the largest user of liquid fuels in Australia, accounting for around three quarters of Australia's total usage, and we remain highly dependent on imported fuels, as we've seen recently. That has exposed us to the international energy markets and international instability. We know in sectors like aviation, heavy vehicle, and maritime, they are extremely difficult to electrify. We continue to rely on liquid fuels for some time, and I've said for a long time, developing a low-carbon liquid fuel industry here in Australia is in our national interest, both from a fuel security point of view, but also the opportunities it poses for those in the region, for our farmers in particular. We already export around about $5 billion worth of feedstock, that is then turned into low-carbon liquid fuel internationally, and then sold back to Australian airlines, in particular at the moment, as many airlines are increasing their sustainable aviation fuel uptake. It is crazy that we are not taking the opportunity to develop this industry here. So, what the consultation paper does is look at the next steps of developing that. We have our 1.1 billion cleaner fuels program, which is working on the supply side, and this now looks at developing the demand side. The industry has told us very clearly: in order for there to be investor certainty, we need to have a demand-side measure, and that is what the consultation paper looks like. We know that from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation there are about 16 potential projects already in the offering here in Australia, and we're already seeing developments with HAMR Energy using biomass coming out of Portland and Mount Gambier to develop sustainable aviation fuel to feed Adelaide Airport and the fuel lines that are flying out of there, it's a great opportunity for our regions, for our farmers, and to develop their industry here. The stakeholders were asking broadly to give feedback on a demand side, what a demand side measure could look like, how ambitious it could be, what fuels it should cover and how it should operate in practice. I look forward to that consultation taking place.

BOWEN: Thanks, Catherine. Over to you, folks. Ryan.

JOURNALIST: So, on the demand side measure, are you considering something like a mandate, and when and what kind of-

KING: The paper goes through a couple of different models that you could look at. So, whether it's volumetric, whether it's carbon intensive, what what level of ambition you have, all of that. So no decisions made, but all of that is flagged in the paper for consultation, what would it look like.

JOURNALIST: [Indistinct] requirements would the feedstock just have to be in Australia, or could it be imported to qualify? 

KING: I think we're looking to grow an Australian industry. I know that Minister Collins has already developed a national feedstock strategy. That work’s been well underway for some time now. We want to see the benefits here in Australia right the way through the feed chain. It's estimated that, you know, as I said, it's $5 billion currently that we're exporting. We'd like to see the industry be able to grow. It's estimated, I think, the cost to grow to about $15 billion. I want Australian farmers to benefit from that. It's why you've got Graincorp, National Farmers Federation have been in our offices constantly, talking about low carbon liquid fuels and the opportunity. The opportunities there for sugar, and sugar cane as well, as well as waste products and other biomass as well.

JOURNALIST: With SAF mandates in the European Union, that's you know caused some concern for airlines. They say that's flowing through to high ticket prices. I mean, what assurances can you provide I guess that your you know if you do go ahead with this demand side measure, that you know, I guess people when they purchase airfares aren't going to face high prices as a result of a SAF mandate.

KING: Sure. Well, I guess as I said, it's a consultation paper, and the final outcomes will depend on what model we have. But experience overseas is that they are very small; they are small impacts overall. But I guess the dynamic is: what do you do if you do nothing? What do you do if you do nothing? We are, you know, already so heavily reliant on imported fuel, and already, you know, already you've seen Qantas and Virgin, for example, start to look at sustainable aviation fuel. Our defence force is using it. The fact that we're not producing here is a significant loss. Look at all of those as we go through the consultation. But Chris you might want to- 

BOWEN: Oh no, Catherine summed it up well, and obviously, when you improve fuel security, you know, biggest impact sometimes on fuel prices is fuel insecurity, and by by strengthening our fuel security, we're also taking good steps forward. 

JOURNALIST: How many days of usage do you want to at the end of the process of increasing the fuel reserves, how many days of usage or how many days of imports do you want to have covered, above where we are now?

BOWEN: So a billion litres in the Australian Strategic Fuel Reserve, and then additionally an extra 10 days of private sector holdings, particularly around diesel, petrol, and jet fuel. So a combination of those two measures is very important. As I said, you know we've been pleased with the updates we've been able to give the Australian people every week about how many days we have. But strengthening it, not for this crisis, but for geopolitical- future geopolitical crises, which are inevitable at various points in coming decades, is very important for our fuel security.

JOURNALIST: WA, for example, already has 20 million litres stockpiled, and the state government hasn't ruled out increasing that further. Do you expect this paper to take that into account, or will it be-

BOWEN: Well, there are a couple of small state fuel reserves, and that's fine and you know good and perfectly appropriate. But what we're talking about is a billion litres of strategic national reserve here, and that's that's I think what we're focused on. Yes Ryan? 

JOURNALIST: The Government has made changes to the fuel excise in response to the crisis in the Middle East. Has that prompted any further discussions about EV road user charging?

BOWEN: Well, there's no. I don't see a particular link between the two.

JOURNALIST: Sorry, just road user charging in general.

BOWEN: I understand. Our position, as we've articulated many, many times, Ryan, is that this is a legitimate debate, and the country will move towards this. But we think it has to be gotten right, has to be gotten carefully, done carefully. Has to be in close consultation between the states and the Commonwealth. We want to do it in such a way which does not discourage EV take up. So it's not something which is imminent. It's something that governments will continue to work on and get right. Anything else? All in. 

KING: Thanks everyone.