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Australia news live: Angus Taylor urges clarity on fuel crisis and says PM’s national address ‘could have been a social media post’ | Australia news
Key events
Australia will be attending the UK summit on the Strait of Hormuz, the vital shipping route for oil and gas that has been blocked by Iran, Marles confirmed.
We will be participating in that. It’ll be a virtual meeting as I understand the next 24 hours and the foreign minister will be representing Australia at that meeting.
It follows on from Australia signing up to the UK-led statement… all of those countries and very much Australia have an interest in seeing the Straits of Hormuz opened as soon as possible. We will look to what Australia can do.
Marles defends Albanese’s address to nation
The deputy prime minister and defence minister, Richard Marles, has defended the PM using an address to the nation to tell Australians they should go about their business as usual.
Asked whether Albanese owed Australians more substance on ABC Radio, Marles said:
I think people are trying to come to terms with what all of this means and what they should be doing in this moment. I think that’s particularly the case as we head into the Easter weekend.
‘More drilling’ the answer to Australia’s gas security, Angus Taylor says
Asked about the resource minister’s move to secure gas for local users, Taylor say he’s “always believed that we need to make sure that Australian gas is working hard for Australians”.
But I also believe that the best way to achieve that is more drilling and more gas coming from under the ground. …we keep putting Band-Aids on bullet wounds across our economy whether it’s in gas whether it’s dealing with inflation or interest rates. What we need to do is solve the underlying problem – as I said upfront: we do need to make sure Australian gas is working hard for Australians but the best way to do that is to make sure gas is coming out from under the ground. In existing well-established basins, drilling can convert to more gas production quickly. It doesn’t take long, but we do need to make sure that we don’t get ourselves in this position again.
PM’s address ‘could have been a social media post’, Angus Taylor says
Opposition leader, Angus Taylor, has said the PM Anthony Albanese’s address to the nation last night was unnecessary, and “could have been a social media post”.
Speaking to ABC Radio, Taylor said:
At a time when Australians are wondering whether they can get away on their Easter holidays … what they need is confidence. They need clarity, not confusion. And last night’s address didn’t help. It could have been a social media post.
Resources minister puts gas producers on notice
The federal resources minister, Madeleine King, has formally put gas producers on notice to supply more gas locally or face restrictions on exports.
King appeared on ABC Radio this morning explaining the action being taken in response to the potential shortfall in the east coast market (Western Australia and the Northern Territory are well supplied with gas).
Yesterday I issued that notice of intent under the Australian domestic gas security measurement mechanism for the months of July, August and September. And that is based on the report of the ACCC … that forecasts – it’s a relatively small shortfall, … but the issue for me is that we are going into winter, and at a time when we see this international conflict in the Middle East causing disruption to supply.
What this does is brings all the exporters to the table to prove that they will make sure that shortfall doesn’t come to pass … What’s really important is we don’t want to repeat of 2022 when we didn’t have these tools available to us when there was a gas shortage.
Western Australia fishing ban ‘makes no sense’, court told
A controversial state ban that has left fish eaters without their favourite fillets was politically motivated, unreasonable and not based on science, a court has been told, Australian Associated Press reports.
Catch limits for harvesting prized demersal species, including pink snapper, red emperor and dhufish, have been slashed along most of Western Australia’s vast coastline with a permanent commercial ban over a large stretch.
Trawling companies are challenging restrictions that have prohibited their commercial operations off the Pilbara since January.
A decision by the WA fisheries minister, Jackie Jarvis, was not based on a recommendation from the department and was made without consultation outside the existing legislation to manage the fishery.
In his opening remarks at the supreme court in Perth, lawyer Eric Heenan said:
The order made by the minister was unreasonable and a disproportionate use of power.
The order cannot stand. The evidence will show the minister acted without any scientific assessment of the Pilbara fishery.
Jarvis had acted hastily while under pressure from conservationists due to the demersal species stock situation in a large recreational fishery adjacent to Perth.
Heenan argued the minister was “obsessed” with dolphin bio-catch from trawling, and the ban was “influenced by political considerations” and made “no economic sense”, he said.
Natasha May
Good morning! Thanks Martin for kicking us off.
Australia reacts to Albanese address
Anthony Albanese last night joined a small band of prime ministers to have made televised addresses to the nation but the reaction has been muted.
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, told 7News last night that the prime minister did not give enough detail about how much fuel the country had in reserve and urged him to be more transparent.
“There has consistently been a lack of detail, but also a lack of a plan,” Taylor said on Wednesday night. “We know we’ve got a problem with 600 servos, we also know that the government keeps telling us there’s more than enough stock and so we need clarity on this. We need a plan to go with that.”
Some newspapers were more direct, with Sydney’s Daily Telegraph running a story on less than complimentary reaction from Australians online, the gist of which was that they thought it was a “nothing burger” and a waste of time.
The Nine stable was a little more polite but an opinion piece argued the PM shouldn’t have bothered because his message was ultimately a bit meh.
Read our full story on Albanese’s address here:
And here’s that address in full:
Welcome
Martin Farrer
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the breaking stories before Natasha May takes the helm.
Anthony Albanese used a rare address to the nation to attempt to allay public fears over dwindling fuel supplies, vowing to keep petrol prices down by shoring up international supplies and ramping up local production.
He will be up at the National Press Club later today, where he’ll announce new interest-free loans for businesses hit the hardest by fuel shortages and collapsing consumer confidence.
The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, has criticised the prime minister’s response to the crisis, pushing for more clarity.
Let’s get started.
