NATALIE BARR [HOST]: As we go to air, concerns are mounting for Australia's food supply, with the global oil crisis sparking real fears of shortages on our supermarket shelves. We're now being told up to 70 per cent of our truck drivers could be out of business within six months, and that means our food cannot get from our farms to our cities. And it's even sparked a wave of pantry stocking. With a number of concerns, Aussies are now stockpiling canned foods like baked beans and tomatoes. For more, we're joined by Transport Minister Catherine King. Good morning to you. Tell us, what's the backup plan? If we don't secure the fuel we need, how are we going to get our food from the farm to the supermarket?

CATHERINE KING [MINISTER]: Well, the first thing I would say to people is not to stockpile food. As Minister Bowen has been saying for some time now, we have secure fuel supplies at the moment and that there's no need to go out and to do that. And I really encourage people not to do that because we saw through COVID what that led to, shortages of toilet paper and a range of things that really put pressure on people. So, we don't want to see that happen again. At the moment, really what we're doing and working pretty hard at is to really shore up our fuel supply. It's why the Prime Minister is over in Brunei and Malaysia – he was in Singapore last week as well to do that. To then make sure that we're supporting our trucking industry with lowering the heavy vehicle road user charge and making sure they've got the capacity to build into their contracting the increase in fuel. That's really important.

We're also working very hard on the issue of fertiliser. That's- again, a global shortage in fertiliser really has a significant impact on our farmers, and there's been a lot of work done with the Agriculture Minister and the Industry Minister to shore up supply as well as try and bring forward plans for fertiliser here in Australia. So, a lot of work is being done to do that, and we're also working pretty closely with the supermarkets, the freight and logistics industry, meeting with them regularly about what their needs are. As we've said, the National Cabinet met, has a National Fuel Security Plan. We're at level two at the moment, which is really about keeping Australia moving, and that's- all of the efforts of the government are directed very much at that.

NATALIE BARR: Okay, let's talk about our fuel supply. Give us an update – have we secured anything beyond May?

CATHERINE KING: So, certainly the update in the weekly updates Minister Bowen is giving, he gave that on Saturday, he does that on a weekly basis, that we've got 57 ships coming here, 4.1 billion litres of fuel guaranteed to come into Australia. And we'll continue to work and do everything we can to shore up the fuel supply. But what we've said very clearly is the longer the Strait of Hormuz is closed, the longer the conflict in the Middle East continues – there will be a long tail to this and we're doing everything we can in terms of supply, distribution, as well as trying to deal with the fuel price spikes, which are having such a huge impact on businesses and on households at the moment as well.

NATALIE BARR: So, have we got any fuel shored up beyond May?

CATHERINE KING: Yeah, certainly in terms of that, normally the contracts are only out for that period of time. But again, we're working on that with the fuel sector here. But yes, certainly, we're not expecting that there won't be any fuel. We're not expecting that as well. But we do know there is a long tail coming because of - the longer the Strait of Hormuz is closed, the tighter that supply becomes. But 4.1 billion litres secured here through May, and Minister Bowen will continue to give those weekly updates. We've, of course, also got our minimum stockholding obligations, which are the emergency supply, which he gives an update about those as well.

NATALIE BARR: Okay, and they're on top of that, aren't they?

CATHERINE KING: Yeah, and that's exactly right. They're on top of that, and that continues to hold.

NATALIE BARR: Okay. Minister, thank you very much for your time.

CATHERINE KING: You're very welcome, Nat.