PM to update state and territory leaders and is weighing options to increase oil refining in Australia. Follow today’s news live
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Bcak to the prime minister, who said last night the government was considering options to boost domestic fuel refining capacity as the Middle East conflict exposes Australia’s vulnerability to international supply chain shocks, but without specifying what the options might be.
Australia imports up to 90% of refined fuel products and has just two operating refineries, Viva Energy’s refinery in Geelong – which caught fire last week – and the Ampol Lytton refinery in Brisbane.
We will look at the full range of opportunities which are there. We’re very open to pursuing those. We’re engaging with the private sector in particular, and we’ll engage, of course, with state and territory colleagues.
People think that a lot of these multinational gas companies have had an obscenely sweet deal for way too long and the country has been the poorer for it. And the idea that we would get a better deal on our gas is uniting people across the political spectrum …
If it doesn’t happen in this budget, it’s not a lost opportunity, it’s a missed one.
Average Australians are right when they say, we’ve got so much of this resource and yet we’re being told we’re running out. We’re not. We just export so much of it.
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