Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee, , 8:55:37 to 8:59:52
Examination of Australia's reliance on diesel imports, supply chain resilience, and government programs aimed at transitioning to cleaner fuels and electrification.
Topics: Energy storage, Infrastructure
Speakers: Anthea Harris, Dr Steven Kennedy, Senator Steph Hodgins-May, Ms Anthea Harris
Uh um well as the secretary of the department um um yes in in establishing a fuel security role and and in that role being run the fuel the uh deputy secretary who um plays that role is present today if you wish to address put some questions to her.
>> Okay. Um I understand you're quite expert in these matters, but um my follow-up question is um according to national accounts, diesel has climbed from 5% of our total imports um by value last year to 10% now. So we're basically importing inflation when we import diesel. Um is reducing our reliance on diesel a priority of yours and PMC's?
Um um I guess that um goes to a policy question about um um uh diesel diesel use in Australia, but certainly a focus of the department in light of uh the Middle East crisis is understanding supply chain resilience and our reliance on particular fuels and u given the size of our resources sector and agricultural sector. What the current crisis has demonstrated is a high level of reli reliance on diesel and it's something we are focused on
>> and um Treasury advised us that in 2030 we'll be burning more uh more diesel than we are today I think 2.4 billion lers um do you hold any concerns that our economy will be more vulnerable to fuel shocks in 2030 than we are today?
Uh well I think the government's put forward a number of policies to address issues around um um fuel security. If you don't mind I can ask my colleague to quickly um provide some more detail.
>> U thank you uh Dr. Kennedy and thank you Senator. My name is Anthia Harris. Um I'm the deputy secretary for the uh economy industry and resources group uh as well as the fuel supply coordinator. uh in relation to measures for future resilience and trying to reduce our Australia's dependence on fossil fuels which are imported um mostly uh there have been a number of programs that have been announced. So in particular the $ 1.1 billion um cleaner fuels program um to establish a domestic lowcarbon liquid fuels industry. Uh there's the $55 million um to deliver the transport resilience and capacity kickstart program to incentivize increased freight volumes by rail and maritime transport. So a mode shift piece uh $4.5 million to accelerate the electrification uh of Australia posts um delivery for uh fleet. Um the uh so there have been measures that work across um looking to future resilience not just increasing stores and availability of fossil fuels and making uh putting Australia in a more secure position on that front but thinking about measures of how we can reduce our reliance on fossil fuels
>> Um thank you. uh my is it my understanding is that these funding streams are all out for consultation and odds post is only 1% total funding is
>> yes I can uh in fact for more detail I would refer you to the um to the appropriate department so the department of infrastructure in relation to the lowcarbon liquid fuels um so there is some consultation um uh about that uh uh ongoing
>> and so how are we going to reduce our over our vulnerability um to diesel
again in the long run um uh in terms of dependence so there's as I said there's multiple streams of activity in terms of um reducing vulnerability in terms of having more stocks available um those sorts of things but that uh investing in looking at alternative fuels so in particular lowcarbon liquid fuels uh and looking at um thinking about how we can deal with mode shift uh and uh what we can continue doing on the electrification front. They're all part of a kind of an overall piece around what can be done for the longer term to um reduce that vulnerability.
>> Thank you. And I'm conscious you're probably going to be leaving soon. Dr. Kennedy, can I just ask one unrelated question then I'll return to Diesel.