Anthony Albanese unveils more than $10bn fuel security package
anthony albanese said in Sydney that the budget will include a more than $10bn package for fuel and fertiliser security, including a permanent government-owned fuel security reserve of about 1bn litres. The plan is meant to lift Australia’s onshore fuel reserves to at least 50 days of supply, with diesel and aviation fuel at the centre of the stockpile.
Albanese said the government is continuing work to tackle the ongoing fuel crisis. He added: “We have worked relentlessly to secure our fuel supply lines. So far we are faring well.”
Bowen on the new reserve
Chris Bowen said the reserve marks a shift in how Australia handles fuel storage. “This is a big change in our approach as a country and a good one,” he said, adding that the 1bn-litre stockpile will be owned by the government.
Bowen said the focus will be on jet fuel and diesel, with the reserve designed to prepare for the worst circumstances. That leaves the plan aimed at the fuels most tied to transport and freight, rather than a broad emergency store of every fuel type.
Fuel supply lines
The government is tying the package to its response to the ongoing fuel crisis, with the new reserve presented as part of a wider effort to steady supply lines. Albanese said the onshore stockpiles will expand to ensure at least 50 days of fuel supply, a level that gives the government a clearer buffer if deliveries are disrupted.
For households, freight operators and airlines, the immediate change is not a price cut or a new subsidy. It is a larger public reserve built to sit behind the market, with government ownership and a stated focus on diesel and aviation fuel instead of short-term spot buying.
Nauru ruling
On the same day, a High Court bench unanimously dismissed an elderly Iranian man’s appeal against being sent to Nauru. The challenge concerned the Albanese government’s arrangement to send members of the NZYQ cohort there on 30-year visas.
Lawyers for the man argued that deportation could lead to his imminent and preventable death because of limited health facilities in Nauru. They also argued that Australia’s $2.5bn deal with Nauru to send NZYQ-affected people there was unconstitutional.
At least 350 non-citizens have been released into the community since the High Court ruled in November 2023 that Australia could not keep non-citizens indefinitely detained. That ruling continues to shape the government’s handling of the NZYQ cohort as it uses Nauru as part of its response.
