E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SUNRISE
MONDAY, 2 March 2026
TOPICS: MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT; Electric vehicles
NATALIE BARR: Let's bring in Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek and One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce. Good morning to both of you. Tanya, how certain is the government that we will not have to get involved in this conflict?
TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: Well, the Foreign Minister has already made it clear that we absolutely don't expect to be involved in this conflict and I know that she'll be on your show later today and be able to talk more about that. I think the first thing that we need to say about this, Nat, is that there's a lot of Australian Iranians right now who are super worried about friends and family who are in Iran. And Australians who have got friends and family more broadly in the Middle East right now trying to get home, back to Australia. Our focus right now is making sure that Australians can safely get home. And there's a 24 hour, seven-day-a-week consular assistance line that people can call for help if they've got friends and family trying to get out. And of course we'll be doing whatever we can. It's a very difficult situation over there. A lot of flights cancelled, a lot of people trying to get out who are stuck over there. So, it is important also to follow the advice of local authorities and definitely people should not be travelling to the Middle East right now.
BARR: Yeah, look, there are, I think three and a half thousand flights cancelled just today. That's a million people affected right around the world. Barnaby, let's go back to that assistance, if any, that Australia should provide our ally, the US.
JOYCE: Well, Nat, it's a shame in a crisis like this that we've got ourselves down to two oil refineries so that if there's a crisis in the production of fuel, we're in a bad spot. We did that because we're going to change climate. It's a shame that we got ourselves into so much debt that if we need a stimulation package to get the economy going or to protect ourselves through a protracted conflict, we're sort of hocked ourselves up with debt. It's a shame about that. It's a shame that if this blows out, remember China could have a look at this as a time and opportunity to take on Taiwan, that we don't have a formidable defence force. Shame about that. It's a shame that we haven't done the economic sort of really war game, the economic consequences for Australia. But we've got the old policies here, cross the fingers, everything should be right. As long as President Trump is able to bring this to a conclusion, then, yeah, we'll be right and we'll just stumble along till the next crisis. But we don't want this to go on. People have got to start looking at what the effects are for Australia, not just, not just the Middle East. And you can start looking for those effects at a petrol pump near you.
BARR: Yes, exactly. The flow on effect, Tanya, full fuel prices, it's going to be big, even just in the next few days. We've heard this morning that the Strait of Hormuz, which supplies of course, a huge portion of the world's oil, already shut. What do you expect the impact on Australia to be?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, obviously, Nat, our immediate focus is on making sure Australians are able to safely leave the region. But of course there'll be an economic impact of this. There was an economic impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine that affected the whole world and that includes Australia. This is an area where a lot of, you know, our global oil and petrol ultimately is impacted by what's being produced in the Middle East. I mean, it is a very good argument for Australia to have energy security and energy independence. And as Barnaby just said, that energy independence is important for Australia and the best way we can be energy independent is to rely less on imported oil from overseas.
BARR: Tanya, do we need to boost our own defences?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Yeah. And that's why we've seen the biggest increase in military spending under this government. It's why, it's exactly why we're investing in new kit. I mean, the previous government spent 10 years putting out press releases about investments in our defence forces rather than actually investing in the defence force. That's what we're doing.
BARR: People watching this morning will be thinking, okay, petrol's, you know, my bottom line. We know stuff's going on over there, people are going to be affected. That's awful. But my bottom line is petrol is going to go up and then transport costs are going to go up and then the things that are in the trucks, that the transport, you know, is being sent around Australia, that's going to go up. So, people in Australia are going to be affected by this?
JOYCE: That's right. The cost of living to is going to be smashed if this continues on. We like when we load cattle, we got, I've got diesel, and you can't do it on intermittent power windmills and solar panels, for goodness sake. I mean, what you've got to do is got to get the truck to the sale yards, the sale yards to the feedlots, the feedlots, to the abattoir.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: So --
JOYCE: The abattoir-- let me finish - the abattoir back to the shops. And this all goes into your cost of living. And we're down to two oil refineries because of this insane idea that we're going to cool the planet.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: So you make a really good argument for electric vehicles, Barnaby.
JOYCE: And now we're talking about energy security and solar panels. And I just listened to Tanya and I've got no confidence whatsoever that they have a plan of how to get through this.
BARR: Okay, last word, Tanya.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: You've just made a really good argument for electric vehicles, Barnaby. That is the way that we have energy security in this country.
JOYCE: [Screams] Oh and electric tractors and electric headers and electric 650 horsepower trucks pulling things around. I mean, that is ridiculous. It's so childish. It's ridiculous.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: You should get out more and have a look at what the big supermarkets are already doing--
JOYCE: I do have a look at the, I spent the weekend at a trucking conference at Coffs Harbour. Look it up. It's on the Facebook.
BARR: Tanya, final word.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Okay. There's a reason that the, that the big supermarkets are shifting to electric vehicles. It's cheaper.
JOYCE: Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: And when, when oil supplies are cut like this, Barnaby, it just shows how useful that is.
JOYCE: Tanya, how many electric semi-trailers have you seen on the road lately?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I've seen plenty of electric trucks delivering groceries in suburban Sydney.
JOYCE: How many electric semi-trailers have you seen on the road? How many?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: And they're not just more efficient. They're not just more efficient, they’re quieter.
JOYCE: How many electric semi-trailers have you seen, Tanya? One? Any? Zero. Zip. None.
BARR: Well, we might get onto the supermarkets, and see if that’s happening.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Cars and trucks, Barnaby. There's a lot of them.
JOYCE: None, Tanya. None.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Cars and trucks. Lot of them. And if there’s more electric cars than trucks--
JOYCE: [Inaudible]
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: [Inaudible]
BARR: Thank you very much, we’ll leave it there.
Ends
