E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SUNRISE
MONDAY, 13 APRIL 2026
Topics: Fuel supply; Prime Minister's visit to Brunei & Malaysia; Government advertising campaign
NATALIE BARR: Let's bring in Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek and One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce. Good morning to both of you. Tanya, you've been saying as a government, there's no fuel shortage, no reason to panic buy. But this is the PM's second trip to Asia this month. Do we have enough fuel?
MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES, TANYA PLIBERSEK: Well, we do. We've got a month's worth of diesel, jet fuel and petrol. We've got 57 ships on the way. We continue to have enough and receive enough fuel. But it's a very wise precaution for the Prime Minister to be on these diplomatic missions to Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, just to remind our neighbours that we have strong reliance on fuel from them, just as they rely on us for natural gas, and that we are a reliable trading partner when it comes to energy security. And we'd like to make sure that that's a two-way street. I mean, what we really need to see, of course, Nat, is for this ceasefire to hold and for the situation in the Middle East to be resolved diplomatically. It's had a very significant effect, not just in Australia, but around the world on fuel security and other goods like fertiliser, but there's also been a horrendous civilian death toll in Iran and in Lebanon. And we want to make sure that not only do we have fuel security for Australia, but that we see that the massive impact, the horrific impact on civilians in these countries also come to an end.
BARR: Yes, it has, certainly. Barnaby, if Asian fuel producers start to prioritise their own domestic markets, how much harm are we in for?
BARNABY JOYCE: We're in a bit of strife now. We wouldn't be having a stupid ad telling people not to use fuel if we were completely confident we had enough of it here. And we'll suppose we'll talk about that later on. What we can say is we're now running around Asia telling everybody that we're reliable in gas supplies. We're going to streamline it. Even though we've spent years finding environmental reasons and finding hurdles and looking after the Greens Party and looking after the kiddies trying to not bring gas online. If you want to talk about a major gas field we've brought online the last four years, and I'd love to hear it. What we've got to understand is the climate change policy is not suited to changing the climate in any way, shape or form. We can't actually change what's happening in the Middle East. We can have commentary on it, but we can streamline and change direction in Australia in such a form as to give us more resilience. And even as we speak this morning, Nat, Australia has the so called safeguard mechanism - don't you love the way they give all these sort of wonderful nomenclature, safeguard renewables, blah blah blah - which is actually designed to put refineries out of business and saying they're not, they're not morally virtuous and they can't belong in Australia. If we don't have a wake up call from what's happening here, then we are total and utter fools.
BARR: Okay, let's talk about this 20 million--
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: The refineries closed under you, Barnaby. The refineries closed under you. The safeguard mechanism was introduced under you.
JOYCE: You're the government. You’re the government. If you don’t want to be the government give up [INAUDIBLE].
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: And we know you don't want me to give us resources that renewables provide us with, actually give us energy independence from the world.
JOYCE: Tanya, that's ridiculous. we're having more strife under--
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: The more renewables we have in Australia, the more independent we have. Because it's Australian sun, and it’s Australian wind that we use.
BARR: We’re going round in circles. This happens every week. We know the oil refineries closed years ago.
JOYCE: [INAUDIBLE]
BARR: People are talking about maybe bringing some back. So, we'll go into that maybe at another time. Tanya - and we go and ask the Prime Minister that. Tanya, let's talk about this ad. $20 million to run an ad campaign, it kicks off today. It's encouraging us to reduce driving and conserve petrol. You've been slammed for spending this much money at this time on an ad campaign like this. Do you think that's a good use of taxpayers money? Why can't you and your Ministers just tell people?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, we see that there's heaps of misinformation out there online about what's happening with fuel security. It's really important that people know where to go for information. We've got a national fuel security plan. We're at level two of a four level plan at the moment. Giving people information about where they can go to find out more about that national fuel security plan and giving them practical tips like check your tyre pressure, take the roof racks off if you don't need them, carry less in the boot if you don't need that extra weight in the boot. These are all practical ways that people can make a difference. Some of them they might know about already, some of them they don't know about. I think it's a good investment. And when you compare it to government advertising.
BARR: Do you, really?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah, yes, I do. Absolutely I do.
BARR: $20 million. We have a Minister on this program, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Chris Bowen wouldn't come on this program for three weeks now. You're going to spend $20 million telling us to pump up our tires and not fill up as much.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Nat, have you had a look at the misinformation that's out there on the Internet?
BARR: Yeah, it's terrible.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Have you had a look at the misinformation that's out there is.
BARR: Do you think they're going to, people are going to watch this ad.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: People need to know where to go for the right information. And when you compare $20 million to the $340 million that the Liberals spent on the Unchain my heart ads for industrial relations changes that they made back in the day-
BARR: We’re not going to go back--
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: It's a pretty small investment to give people believable, credible, detailed information about our national fuel security plan. We've got at least, I don't know, 16 measures out there, including big investments like cutting the fuel excise in half, getting rid of the heavy vehicle user charge completely releasing the reserve stocks of fuel that we've got, cracking down on price gouging, giving the ACCC more powers to crack down on price gouging. We're doing all of that. It's important that people know that those actions are underway and it's important that people know where they can go for good information about what they can do to help.
BARR: Okay, so it's a good spend of $20 million. Barnaby, is it worth the money to have people be informed?
JOYCE: Nat, there's nothing to worry about. There's absolutely nothing to worry about. And Unchain my heart, what about unchain your brain. I mean there's nothing to worry about. But if you just remove your roof racks and pump up your tyres a little and drive it a little bit slower, everything will be fine. But don't worry, there's nothing to worry about. There's nothing to worry about. It's ridiculous. Remove your roof racks. I mean, is that, is that our policy, is that our policy to get rid of the fuel crisis.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Every little bit helps, Barnaby.
JOYCE: Remove your roof racks and it's just, you just can't look at - after this, the statement to the nation of five minutes of nothingness. We get this ridiculous ad and all it does is inspire people to go, they have not, not got this under control. This is out of control.
BARR: Okay, well look, we're going to ask the Prime Minister after 8 o' clock this morning for the first time in this crisis, he's coming on the program. Thank you very much. We'll see you
ENDS
