Doorstop - Lytton QLD
17 May 2021
Prime Minister, Member for Bonner, Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction
ROSS VASTA MP, MEMBER FOR BONNER: I acknowledge the traditional custodians on the land in which we gather and pay my respects to their elders past and present and emerging. Well it’s wonderful to be here in the AMPOL refinery in Lytton, in my electorate of Bonner. And we are joined by the Prime Minister and Minister Angus Taylor and by Matt. And it's great to be here because we have an incredible announcement. And it's all about the jobs for the local economy. 500 direct jobs here and over 500 indirect jobs. It's an incredible announcement. It's about the future of our country, it's about the future of our fuel security. Without any further ado, we introduce the honourable Scott Morrison, Prime Minister of Australia.
PRIME MINISTER: Great to be here, thanks very much Ross. I am very pleased to be joined by Angus Taylor, Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction. Also Matt and the team at AMPOL, it’s great to have you here. And Daniel from the AWU, it’s great to have you here. This is a partnership for jobs. The Budget is a plan for Australia's recovery. And recovery is all about self-sufficiency. There's one thing I think that's been reinforced over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s just so important that we have self-sufficiency. Whether it's in medical supplies, vaccines, or treatments, but also when it comes to things like fuel security. This is an increasingly tough business, margins in the fuel refining business are tough. And we've seen big, large multinational companies over recent years make decisions a long way away from here because of the technology and the upgrades that they put in plants in other parts of the world has meant they’ve made decisions that have impacted us here in Australia. And here in this Budget, under Angus’s leadership, working with the sector, we have a plan to ensure that we can preserve the refineries, these Australian refineries, Australian companies to enable them to continue to operate here with a plan to keep them going out to 2030. Now, it wasn't that long ago I was standing with Angus down in Portland, ensuring that we were keeping that aluminium smelter going. Well, here we are today on a very sunny day in Brisbane, ensuring that we're keeping our fuel refineries operational here and down in Geelong. Fuel security is important not just to ensure the more than 1,200 jobs that are directly employed, both here in Geelong, 550 jobs here, and the many hundreds of contractors that also support the work that takes place here. But the businesses and the others who are part of the economy that make up this part of Brisbane, also significantly supported by the operations here in Lytton. All of that is incredibly important for those jobs. But it's every job that sits in the transport sector, every job that relies on diesel, whether it's in the agricultural sector, the long-haul transport sector. All of these sectors are supported by ensuring that we have a self-sufficient refining industry here in Australia. The plan involves an up to 1.8 cent per litre support payment for refined fuel here in Australia. That’s out over the next 9 years out to 2030. Now, the way it works, I’ll let Angus Taylor explain it to you in more detail, but what it basically means is it supports the refinery and AMPOL here to be able to keep in business to ensure that they can keep the doors open and they can do this on a commercial basis. And the up to 1.8 cents per litre means that it allows the prices to drop and it ensures when there is pressure on prices going up, it takes that pressure off and that means it’s good for your fuel bill when you go to the bowser. It’s all about trying to reduce the cost of living and keep people in jobs and this plan is about doing just that. There are also important parts of this plan which relate to fuel standards in upgrading fuel quality and investing in the infrastructure. You would’ve seen we were observing the keen science that goes into ensuring the fuel standards that exist across Australia. We don’t apologise for those standards. It's important for people's health, and this package supports improving those fuel standards, while at the same time making sure that our refineries remain viable. And there's also support here that relates to ensuring that we have the minimum holding requirements of our fuel reserves in Australia. It’s also addressing national security, we need to be self-sufficient. We need to stand up for ourselves. And this policy, this program, this very significant commitment is ensuring that Australia will be self-sufficient and that's an important part of our economic recovery plan that’s recovering from the pandemic recession and the health pandemic caused by COVID and this is part of Australia’s recovery plan. I’ll pass you onto Angus Taylor.
THE HON. ANGUS TAYLOR MP, MINISTER FOR ENERGY AND EMISSIONS REDUCTION: Thank you, PM. Well it’s great to be here with you, with Ross, with Matt Halliday, with Dan Walton who we’ve worked with very closely throughout this process. This is a great day for fuel security in this country. Of course it’s fuel that keeps our economy moving and it’s fuel that keeps our country moving. And, of course, this is a commitment to our national security, our fuel security, having the fuel available even in the worst possible circumstances in a world that is far less certain than even a few short years ago. It’s a great day for the jobs here at the refinery and the refinery down in Geelong. 1,250 direct jobs and many more indirect jobs that rely on these refineries being in place, but of course, it’s the job of every fuel user. Every truckie, every tradie, every farmer, every commuter, every emergency service worker who relies on that fuel to get their job done. That's what this is all about, their jobs and their ability to do what they have to do in their jobs every day is what this is all about. And there's a couple of features of this arrangement I want to highlight. The first, is that the payments of up to 1.8 cents per litre depends on the refining margin. As the refining margin goes down, that payment goes up to 1.8 cents, but as the refining margin goes up and businesses like this are more profitable, the payment goes to zero. The whole point here is only to provide support when it is needed for the fuel security of this country. Another key feature is the commitment from the refineries to upgrades of their refining to reduce the sulphur in our fuels. This is absolutely critical to getting moving towards much cleaner fuel to allowing vehicles into this country to use that cleaner fuel and reducing pollution from cars. This an important commitment and it is a part of the overall package. Now, it’s also part of a broader fuel security package. Not only are we providing support to the refineries, we’re putting in place a minimum stockholding obligation, which is particularly focused on increasing the level of stocks for diesel. A 40 per cent increase in the diesel held in stocks in this country and alongside of that, a commitment to increasing the onshore storage facilities here in this country. We haven't had enough onshore storage, we are committing $200 million alongside the private sector to get more storage into place. The combination of those initiatives ensure that we have the fuel we need at all times, including those worst possible circumstances to keep our economy moving. Thank you very much.
MATT HALLIDAY, CEO AND MANAGING DIRECTOR OF AMPOL: Thank you very much. It's great to be here today. This is a very important day for Lytton, for AMPOL and I think for the broader Australian refining and manufacturing sector. We're really proud today to be partnering with the country and the government on the dual objectives of fuel security and energy transition. I think it's a very proud day for our employees, I think it's a very proud day for the broader community. As has been noted, this package enables the protection of 550 jobs here at Lytton and hundreds more indirect jobs. It enables AMPOL in parallel with continuing ongoing refining operations to be developing future uses for the site and protecting critical manufacturing jobs that will play an essential role in the longer term energy transition. AMPOL is a proud, independent Australian company. We play an important role in the local economy and we play a really important role in delivering national prosperity. Accordingly, our discussions with the Government right throughout the last 12 months have been very open and productive and have led us to where we are today, which I think is a fantastic outcome for our sector, for the country and for our company. I'd like to to extend my thanks to the Government, especially to Minister Taylor for the role he has played very openly and constructively in allowing us to reach this outcome and we look forward to continuing to work with the Government in continuing to deliver safe, reliable and efficient operations here at Lytton while we continue to build for the future.
DANIEL WALTON, SECRETARY OF THE AUSTRALIAN WORKERS’ UNION (AWU): Well, thanks very much. It would probably be very remiss of me not to mention that we rarely share the stage with the Prime Minister and Minister Taylor here today, but we’ve done so for our members. Our 1,250-plus members right around the country are breathing a sigh of relief today because they know that their jobs are secure and that they've got a long term future in to the years ahead. 1,250 employees are very important, but it's also the indirect jobs between [inaudible] companies that rely so heavily on the refineries remaining open to continue to make the great products they do. It's also important to remember that as a nation, we can't ever lose sight of our sovereign capability, and if we rely entirely upon our borders and our shipping lanes remaining open to provide the crucial fuels [inaudible] we must keep and remember the agriculture industry, the mining industry, the Defence Force, our aviation industry who so desperately rely on good quality fuel, which this site and the site down in Geelong produce. We welcome the announcement today. It's a great announcement by the Government. We look forward to continued work to ensure the viability of this facility, the viability of the facility down in Geelong and we certainly welcome the announcement today.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much Dan. Over the course of the pandemic, everyone who has wanted to support jobs has worked together and I think that’s been tremendous so I appreciate that very much Dan, you being here today and just like when I joined your Union colleagues down there in Portland not that long ago as well. We’re all here for jobs, which is very important and making things, making petroleum here. Yesterday, making steel fabrication in Gladstone and here today making petroleum. We have to keep making things here in Australia. Ok, happy to take some questions. If I could just keep it to this announcement first and then we’ll go to other issues and we can excuse our friends.
JOURNALIST: PM, fuel security is an element of this announcement, [inaudible], are we still exposed as well [inaudible]?
THE HON. ANGUS TAYLOR MP, MINISTER FOR ENERGY AND EMISSIONS REDUCTION: Having two refineries puts us in a position where we can provide the fuel we need from the crude oil we produce for those essential services we need to keep the economy going. That's why having two refineries is so important. Because we want to keep that production of crude oil you referred to, Phil, that has got to continue, obviously, and Bass Strait is important to that, Cooper Basin as well, and so too potentially is the Beetaloo Basin. That fuel supply will be something we will continue to work on. It's crucial to these refineries and it supports our fuel security.
PRIME MINISTER: The point I’d make Phil is, as you know the G7+ is coming up and many of these other forums. And one of the most important issues we've been discussing amongst like-minded liberal democracies, market-based economies, is the security of supply chains amongst those type of countries. It was part of the discussion I had with Boris Johnson just last week and I'm sure there will be many more of those discussions in the months ahead over the course of the many international meetings. You have to have self-sufficiency here and you've got to have partners you can rely on as well and we're working both sides of that.
JOURNALIST: PM, just in terms of different types of fuel and perhaps Minister Taylor as well, what about aviation fuel in Australia? How exposed are we, how much supply would we have to even keep our jet fighters in the sky?
THE HON. ANGUS TAYLOR MP, MINISTER FOR ENERGY AND EMISSIONS REDUCTION: I mean, the good news is, Chris, at the moment, we've got more than enough aviation fuel. With what has happened with the pandemic, there's been an enormous amount of aviation fuel and the challenge has been to produce a little less, not more. But over the long term, that's also part of the minimum stock holding obligation. You’ve got to have enough aviation fuel. Defence has its own requirements and it deals with that separately. But we do need to have enough aviation fuel and the minimum stock holding obligation applies to that and these refineries produce that.
PRIME MINISTER: The defence reserve capability is also addressed elsewhere in the Budget as part of the defence IIP.
JOURNALIST: This minimum security payment [inaudible] to keep refineries going …
PRIME MINISTER: Correct.
JOURNALIST: And this payment goes up to, I believe, 2030. What happens after that? How do you know [inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER: Well look, we can't guarantee every uncertainty that's out there. What we're doing here is working together to provide that certainty over the next 9 years. And I think what we've shown as a government, is our preparedness to work with everybody to provide further security and certainty in the future. Whether it's an aluminium smelter in Portland or indeed up in Tomago, up in the Hunter and the work that was done there around energy prices which is also supporting them to remain in the market. Or indeed here, these are practical challenges and we're constantly coming up with the practical answers to those. I think today is another good demonstration of that. No doubt there will be challenges in the future and I can assure you we'll address those with the same application and I believe the same success at that time and in the lead-up to that time. Very good.
JOURNALIST: So is it correct that the Company is only committing to 2027 [inaudible]?
MATT HALLIDAY, CEO AND MANAGING DIRECTOR OF AMPOL: So the company under the packages are continuing to operate until mid-2027. And the package is funded for obviously nine years. That's a long way into the future and it will enable us to continue investing with confidence and supporting the jobs here at Lytton over that period.
JOURNALIST: Have you made a decision beyond 2027?
MATT HALLIDAY, CEO AND MANAGING DIRECTOR OF AMPOL: In the longer term we'll make those future decisions.
PRIME MINISTER: Okay. If there's no more questions on that matter, I might thank very much all of our friends from AMPOL and the AWU, thank you for being with us.
JOURNALIST: A couple of things on international borders. What's the benchmark for
the Government to start considering opening the borders? Is it a level of vaccination of the population and effectively if the States believe they’ve reached a level of their vaccination programs where they believe it’s safe for international travellers to come into their borders, could the States go it alone separately and open up designed tourism areas, or their own States, or will it be a blanket decision?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, first of all, I welcome the fact that I think Australians by and large share the view that Australia has done incredibly well throughout the course of the pandemic and we have been able to not only save lives but save livelihoods as well. And Australians want to see that continue. And I think they understand the importance of a cautious approach when it comes to maintaining our border arrangements. Now those border arrangements, it's not one day the borders are open, one day the borders are closed. That's not how it works. There's a sliding sort of scale here. And we're working on the next steps. Now, it's not safe to take those next steps right now. It's not. But we'll keep working on what those next steps are. I have talked about those next steps. Those next steps are for Australians to be in a position when they're fully vaccinated to be able to not be subject to any domestic restrictions that are put in place by state and territory governments. That they might be able to travel with different types of quarantine arrangements on their return. And also the step of, in a managed and safe way, starting to bring back those who we need to come into the country, whether it's for international students or indeed for specialist occupations. And I know we have a lot of challenges in the agricultural sector and the hospitality sector, in regional areas, and facilitating those types of arrangements. So I’d say more, Mark, that there are some practical challenges that we are working on now and finding solutions to, and you'll move incrementally. Not all in one day. But right now it is not safe to be flicking the switch on those. I'm looking forward to further discussions with the Singapore Government about them being the next potential country. Now I still think that is some way off. Particularly as we've seen, and it's a telling reminder, in Singapore, we are seeing lockdowns come back in, and that has been one of the more successful countries, like Australia. In Taiwan, I’d argue, probably the most successful country in the world, is now going through a challenging period and seeing restrictions come back in. That's why in the Budget we talk about securing Australia's recovery, because we understand you cannot take it for granted. And so we won't be taking decisions that put Australians' lives and livelihoods at risk. We will be doing it cautiously, we will be working closely with states and territories on innovative ways to keep the borders safe, but at the same time address some of these other needs that are there, and to specifically answer your question in relation to states, just like we've had proposals come forward from South Australia when it comes to international student pilots, and we've already been doing those, or Northern Territory, in terms of bringing in horticultural workers and things like that, and we're already working on them with a proposal they have around Bladin, which has been in the works for some time. These are practical initiatives that we lean into with them. But the key thing is, is the overall border arrangements, they remain in place, until it's safe to do anything different. And then we work within that to do practical things that I think support the economy but keep Australians safe.
JOURNALIST: PM, do the cricketers get a rails run home?
PRIME MINISTER: No.
JOURNALIST: So how would you describe it?
PRIME MINISTER: No. They had to do what everybody else did. And they did not take one place in quarantine that anyone else might have otherwise had. That's something we insisted on with the New South Wales State Government when they were going to allow that flight back in. And we said well, it has to be over and above the caps. But that said, I'm very appreciative of the way the New South Wales Government has kept their caps high. If it wasn't for New South Wales working with the Commonwealth, on keeping those caps high, there would be thousands upon thousands, if not tens of thousands of Australians who wouldn't have been able to get home, were it not for the working relationship between the New South Wales Government and the Federal Government.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible question]
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, working with the Northern Territory Government. When I was in Darwin recently, it's a proposal that Chief Minister Gunner and I have discussed. It's been used for defence purposes, and ag workers as well in the past, as I understand it. But mainly for defence purposes, with the US Marines, I understand. So it hasn't been going unutilised. But when those contracts finish, then there is the opportunity to do further work there, particularly dealing with workforce requirements, in the Territory, and that is a matter that we're already working with the Northern Territory Government on, and the farmers up there, who put that proposal. We're very open to these well thought through, detailed, comprehensive proposals where costings are provided, and who's running the health side of things and the operations and where’s the workforce coming from, and how is the capital being addressed. And we've seen a number of those. As you know, we are working through the Victorian proposal, which I think meets vastly, I think, that level of detail that we need. You can't just sort of throw a photo on the ground at a map and say that's a proposal. That's not something we can respond to. So it's important that we do these things safely and we do them constructively.
JOURNALIST: How far away is a decision on the Victorian proposal?
PRIME MINISTER: We’ve still got a little bit of time. The information we only received not that long ago, actually. So it's been worked through by my Department, the Department of Home Affairs as well. The precise points of the proposal, there's discussions going back and forth with the Victorian Government. I have got to say it's a very constructive, positive process. There are other alternatives in Victoria as well that we know that are available there. And I think they present some good opportunities as well.
JOURNALIST: But weeks, not months?
PRIME MINISTER: It's a bit hard for me to say at this point, Mark. Once we have gone through that process in the next couple of weeks, I think we'll be in a better position to give an answer to that question.
JOURNALIST: PM, you didn’t mention the Toowoomba quarantine facility. Is it fair to say once and for all that proposition is just not going to happen?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the problem with it is, we’ve never actually had a proposal. And the details, when you compare what has been put forward by the Victorian Government is chalk and cheese. Victoria's put a very comprehensive proposal to us. Something we can actually work with. And we are. One of the biggest difficulties with that proposal is it's not near a major capital city where there's a major hospital. That's the big problem with it, amongst many others. The idea that you can just put it in the desert somewhere, and I know that Toowoomba is not the desert, but the point being they need to be close to major capital city airports. Because the planes aren’t going somewhere else, they're coming into Brisbane. That's a very long trek to Toowoomba. We have facilities up in the Northern Territory to bring our charters into and that's what we're actually doing. We invested half a billion dollars in this Budget to upgrade the facilities at Howard Springs from 850 to 2,000. So we saw that as a much better way of increasing that capacity for those charter services. So where there's an opportunity to supplement what is happening in hotel quarantine, well, that's what the Victorian proposal is about. It's not replacing what is happening with hotel quarantine in Victoria. We still couldn't get straight answers on whether this proposal in Toowoomba was about replacing hotel quarantine or supplementing hotel quarantine. So there was just not enough detail, not enough answers to the questions that we need to properly assess this. I think it's reasonable to say that it hasn't been stacking up very well, particularly when you compare it to a very comprehensive and well thought through proposal from the Victorian Government.
JOURNALIST: [Inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER: I can't hear you, sorry.
JOURNALIST: What if the Queensland Government was to fund it?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's for them to put proposals and it's for them to do the homework. It's for them to get the detail right and it's for them to put forward a comprehensive submission like the Victorians have. And if they were to do that, they could expect the same sort of hearing that the Victorian Government is getting. All good. OK. It's great to be here.
