THE HON ANDREW HASTIE MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND SOVEREIGN CAPABILITY
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR CANNING

TRANSCRIPT
INTERVIEW WITH PETE STEFANOVIC, SKY NEWS

Tuesday 17 March 2026

Topics: Fuel security; conflict in the Middle East.

E&OE……………………………………

PETE STEFANOVIC: Let's bring in the Shadow Industry and Sovereign Capability Minister, Andrew Hastie. Andrew, it's good to see you this morning. You were asking these questions last week, but the answer is still ominous this morning, it feels.

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, at least Richard Marles was honest – and from a position of honesty and fact, we can then start to build out a plan to secure our fuel for the Australian economy and the Australian people. So I welcome Richard Marles' honest take, which is what we didn't get last week with Chris Bowen, who took quite a few days to acknowledge that we're potentially staring down a national crisis when it comes to fuel security.

PETE STEFANOVIC: Well, I mean, we've been caught out here, haven't we?

ANDREW HASTIE: We have, we've been caught with our pants down, and that's after 40 years of dismantling some of the really important parts of our industrial sector, including refineries. I'm not pointing the finger here today, suffice to say, the Australian people out there, they don't care about politics. They care about their fuel security, they care about their own prosperity, their own families, their own small businesses, and they're really worried at the moment. That's why this government has to have a plan to mitigate an extended closure of the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East.

PETE STEFANOVIC: I mean, just a quick check of fuel prices at the moment, Andrew, as we're speaking. We're in the top five in the world when it comes to how expensive fuel is at the bowser. I mean, that's a pretty shocking state of affairs, isn't it?

ANDREW HASTIE: It is, and prices are likely to keep rising as long as this war continues. Price is one thing, cost of living is one thing, but fuel security is another. As Angus Taylor said this morning, if we don't get diesel to farmers, crops aren't planted, and that also potentially compromises our food security in this country.

PETE STEFANOVIC: It does, so let's talk about potential solutions – short term, long term. Short term first. I mean, we've got the release of this extra 800 million litres, which is only 20 per cent – that's about five days of supply. What else could be done?

ANDREW HASTIE: I think the government needs to get on the phone to the countries who run our refineries – Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore – we need to make sure that we have a continuous flow of supply. And then we've also got to look elsewhere for options if those supplies shrink or run out themselves. These are the sorts of questions that the government needs to be asking. Also remember, Pete, we've got a lot of leverage. We're a massive exporter of coal, gas and other critical resources – we can apply a bit of leverage too. That's what they need to do, and they need to be working out how to best mitigate a long-term closure of the Strait of Hormuz and also mitigate against the risk of the Houthis closing Bab al-Mandeb, which is the strait that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden as well.

PETE STEFANOVIC: So when it comes to leverage, what are you suggesting here? Some kind of quid-pro-quo with some customers?

ANDREW HASTIE: Well, for example, South Korea. We buy a lot of oil from South Korea, but we also send a lot of our LNG to South Korea, and they use it, obviously, to refine. These trading relationships – there's something in it for both countries and I think we just got to remind people that we are a really important economy here in Australia to the rest of Asia. I think we just need to make sure that we do have a continuous supply of refined and crude oil for this country.

PETE STEFANOVIC: So what about long term, what are you thinking? I mean, it was Angus Taylor, after all, who signed that deal with the Americans to keep most of our fuel stateside a couple of years ago now. I've spoken to a few shadow ministers about a potential mistake there, and they've all said, "look, that was a decision that was made for the time, but times have now changed." So are you looking at introducing a policy of more refineries in Australia, and if so, how many?

ANDREW HASTIE: Just on Angus – there was an oil demand shock during pandemic and the price was through the floor, and he made the call then to secure more of a reserve over in the US. He also held the Queensland and the Victorian refineries open – he actually passed the Fuel Security Services Payment, which kept our two refineries going. But yes, we need to look at options so that we have some sort of sovereign capability going forward. If we have another crisis and we're in a new state of history, there's no guarantee that the stability of the last 80 years will continue. We've got to work out what we actually need in this country as an insurance policy against geopolitical risk. Families take out health insurance, farmers take out insurance as well, why not the country? And I think liquid fuel is an area where we really need to take action.

PETE STEFANOVIC: Well, do you need to start borrowing Donald Trump's expression to drill, baby, drill?

ANDREW HASTIE: I'm happy to drill in this country. I'm happy to make the most of our natural resources. And this is the problem with Labor and their Net Zero policy – they've actually precluded oil, gas and coal in some of their new projects. That's why we're committed to scrapping Net Zero. We want to make sure that we make the most of Australian energy abundance.

PETE STEFANOVIC: Do you feel like the sentiment is changing on that? Do you feel like you're getting more and more support?

ANDREW HASTIE: Absolutely – people are practical. When you tell people out on the street that we send a lot of our coal and gas to countries like China and India and that they burn it off, and meanwhile, we're buying back solar panels and wind and only getting more expensive power prices, they're outraged – and they're rightly outraged. So I think Labor's Net Zero is part of the problem, but we've also got to focus on a bipartisan solution, and that's agreeing to build new infrastructure to support us in a time of crisis.

PETE STEFANOVIC: Yeah, I mean, just looking at the cost of fuel at the moment. The record, by the way – just on my research here – Hong Kong, the highest $4 a litre and we're at the high end of the twos at the moment, even in the threes in some respects, so we're getting closer to that. Anyway, in a military sense, Richard Marles said earlier, Andrew, that there's been no request to help him secure the Strait of Hormuz. If one was to come though from our American friends, should we be helping out? Because obviously, we have a vested interest in oil that comes in directly through the Strait of Hormuz.

ANDREW HASTIE: Pete, the first thing I'd say is when we last received a request for naval support, back in December 2023 under President Biden, we weren't able to put a vessel into the Middle East to open up the Red Sea, or the Bab al-Mandeb – the strait that connects the Red Sea and the Gulf Bay – we didn't have counter UAS and counter missile capabilities on our ships. And so the question I have now is: if the government does get a request and they are considering sending young Australians into harm's way, I want to make sure that they have the best kit possible to defeat Iranian drones and missiles. Unless we get that guarantee, I don't think it's a good plan at all.

PETE STEFANOVIC: That's Andrew Hastie joining us live on this Tuesday morning. Andrew, appreciate that. Thank you so much as always. We will talk to you again soon.

[ENDS]