THE HON ANDREW HASTIE MP

SHADOW MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND SOVEREIGN CAPABILITY
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR CANNING

TRANSCRIPT

INTERVIEW WITH OLIVER PETERSON, ABC RADIO PERTH DRIVE

Thursday 26 March 2026

Topics: Fuel supply in Australia; conflict in the Middle East; One Nation.

E&OE……………………………………

OLIVER PETERSON: Andrew Hastie joins me on Drive this afternoon, welcome back to the ABC.

ANDREW HASTIE: Good afternoon, Oly.

OLIVER PETERSON: You're calling for a cut to the fuel excise. How much would that actually save drivers per litre right now?

ANDREW HASTIE: That's a really good question, and to be clear, I said all options should be on the table – this is something that we'd have to work through. I was asked this morning on another media program whether or not I supported a cut to fuel excise and I reminded listeners that under the Morrison Government – when the war in Ukraine kicked off in early 2022 – we did temporary and targeted relief with fuel excise by cutting it in half just to ease the pressure on working Australians. That was put to me as a potential option and of course, my belief is that all options should be on the table because Australians are really doing it tough at the moment. They've had inflation over the last four years, interest rate rises, and now they're getting smashed at the bowser and it's causing a lot of anxiety out there, and rightly so.

OLIVER PETERSON: The government says there is no immediate shortage, just global price pressure. Do you accept that, or are we more vulnerable than they're admitting?

ANDREW HASTIE: I think we're incredibly vulnerable. We're one of the most vulnerable countries in the world. Most of our liquid fuel comes from overseas – about 90 per cent of it. It's refined in Asia – in Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, a bit in China, India, Taiwan – but the vast majority of our liquid fuel is sourced from the Middle East first. Since the war started on February 28, the Strait of Hormuz has been closed, and there is a glut of oil, fertilizer and other critical resources for the global economy that are stuck behind the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, and we are going to feel the pain because of that. This is Donald Trump's war. He went to take out the Iranian regime and they have escalated, and they've globalised the war, targeting energy supplies.

OLIVER PETERSON: Australia has already tapped into those fuel reserves. Does that reassure you, Andrew, or do you worry about how exposed we are?

ANDREW HASTIE: I'm worried about how exposed we are, and I've been talking about fuel security for about 10 years now. Back in 2018, I passed a recommendation when I was chairing the Intelligence and Security Committee, and I recommended that the Department of Energy and Home Affairs do a review into Australian liquid fuel and they give us certainty that we have security in a crisis. Here we are, almost six, seven years later – eight years later, now in fact – and the very scenario that I was worried about is playing out in real time. So yes, we are vulnerable and I think what we've got to think about going forward, in the medium to long term, is how we become self-sufficient as a nation. We should be extracting our resources out of the ground and using that here to make diesel, petrol and jet fuel. That way, in a crisis, we have self-sufficiency.

OLIVER PETERSON: So yes, you've been talking about that sovereign capability for some time, but in practical terms, Andrew, what should Australia have in place that we don't have now?

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, right now, what we're seeing is hoarding or informal rationing throughout the supply chain. We have more than 500 service stations across the country that have a shortage or they have run dry on one or more fuels. We've been told by the government – Chris Bowen has said – that all the shipments that we've been expecting on the ocean have arrived in Australia. So the question is, where are the bumps in the supply chain? It's the government's job to smooth out those bumps, and that's why we've called for a national plan. That's why today I said in Parliament that the Prime Minister should already have called a National Cabinet, should be speaking with the Premiers and working on a national plan so that our farmers and people who live down my way in Mandurah and Busselton and elsewhere aren't exposed at the end of a long supply chain.

OLIVER PETERSON: You've indicated that all options should be on the table, so would you be advising National Cabinet to consider drastic measures like prioritising that fuel for essential services or even rationing, Andrew?

ANDREW HASTIE: Again, the reason why we've made this the focus of our Question Time over the last three weeks of Parliament is because the government hasn't been transparent. We're having to ask the government how many petrol stations across the country have closed in Question Time. The Prime Minister, or the Energy Minister, should be standing up and telling people that already – it should be a part of their daily announcement, just so that we can track these things. But we don't have the modelling, we don't have the data, we don't know where the shortages are. It's our job as the Opposition to ask hard questions and make the government do a better job of things.

OLIVER PETERSON: Is this ultimately a failure of planning by the government, or the unavoidable impact of a global crisis?

ANDREW HASTIE: Oly, this is 40 years of failure as a country. I think we thought we could de industrialise our country, that we could rely upon globalisation and the United States to be the leader of the free world and underwrite our security, and everything's changed. We've seen Russia, China and Iran flexing their muscles, and Donald Trump has pretty much torn up the global rules-based order – it actually said that in the National Defense document that they put out last year. Things have changed, and Australia has been caught with our pants down. I think the government should have done a better job of anticipating what might happen in the Middle East. We knew there was a big military buildup, we knew that Donald Trump was open to military action – as we saw last year with June, he went to Venezuela earlier in the year. And as one of the most trade exposed nations in the world, we should have had a plan, and the government's been caught asleep.

OLIVER PETERSON: Coming back to the fuel exercise for a moment. If we were to do that, it'd cost billions. Where would that money come from, Andrew, or do you accept we just need bigger deficits?

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, that's a good question. I don't want to have deficits. Australian families and businesses across this country have been trying to balance their books for the last four years – the government should be doing a better job of that. The last thing I want to see is mums and dads having to choose whether they buy food or send their kids to school, or businesses folding because they can't afford the fuel costs. We're in a cost-of-living crisis – inflation is high and this is going to make it much worse. As I said, I'm open to whatever measures, because in the end, I care about the Australian people, I care about our country, and we need to come through this in a in a good shape on the other side.

OLIVER PETERSON: How long do you think Australians are going to have to brace for higher fuel prices? Is it weeks, is it months? Are they putting off Easter plans? Is going to be even longer than that?

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, the best-case scenario as I see it, Oly, is that somehow the Strait is opened in late April, early May – that's a long time away. And then you've got to consider all the damage that's been done to the Gulf states – whether it's Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE – who've been hit with missiles and Iranian drones. So the cost of this war is going to echo throughout this year and potentially next year, so we can expect high prices for quite some time. That's why I'm so concerned about making sure that Australians get their fuel, that we have a national plan. And that's why I've been critical of President Trump. We didn't get a say in this war, and now it's Australians – regular Australians who work their backsides off to make a living and build a better life for their families – who are getting punished as a result of it.

OLIVER PETERSON: Are we going to be punished, though, as a country by President Trump, do you believe? Does this put AUKUS in danger, Andrew?

ANDREW HASTIE: I don't it puts AUKUS in danger but I think people out there need to ask themselves: who's supporting this war? You've got Pauline Hanson who's come out twice in support of the war – that sounds very MAGA first, rather than Australia first. My heart is with regular Australians who play by the rules, who expect the system to work, and they're now going to get smashed by this global shock. So I want listeners to think very carefully about who's acting in your best interest. And I think as a nation, we need a plan past this war and make sure that if there is another global crisis, that we're self-sufficient, we can look after our own people, and we're not relying on long supply chains that end up in the Middle East.

OLIVER PETERSON: Just finally, is the United States still a friend and an ally of this country under the Trump administration?

ANDREW HASTIE: Yes, don't get me wrong. I've served with American soldiers in combat operations in Afghanistan. My grandfather was saved by an American medic in World War Two. I'm married to an American. I've got a lot of time for our American friends, but I like to quote this proverb: "honest are the wounds of a friend while an enemy multiplies kisses." And I think in a relationship with the U.S., we've got to be frank and open about these things. President Trump runs his own show, and he's made it pretty clear that he speaks disparaging of allies, and I don't think it's wrong to push back every once in a while.

OLIVER PETERSON: Andrew Hastie, thanks for your time.

ANDREW HASTIE: Thank you, Oly.

[ENDS]