Zoe McKenzie MP
Shadow Cabinet Secretary
Shadow Assistant Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations
Member for Flinders
TRANSCRIPT – SKY NEWS NEWSDAY WITH KIERAN GILBERT AND ANDREW CHARLTON
Thursday, 19 March 2026
Topics: Fuel supplies; European Union FTA.
KIERAN GILBERT: Thank you. Let’s go to our regular Thursday panel, Cabinet Secretary Andrew Charlton and Shadow Cabinet Secretary Zoe McKenzie. Thanks for being here. Andrew, first to you, the Prime Minister announcing his fuel supply taskforce, not in the Energy Department, it’s in his own department, Prime Minister and Cabinet. Bridget McKenzie says it’s a concession, the Minister is not doing his job. If companies are hoarding and gouging, why has that been allowed to happen?
ANDREW CHARLTON: Well, good to be with you, Kieran. This is an incredibly important issue for Australians. Fuel is a really important part of Australian family budgets. It’s an important part of the way that we live our lives and essential for many Australian businesses, and that’s why the government has been quick to act here. We were quick to act at the beginning of this government to move Australia’s fuel reserves onshore to secure their supply, take them out of Texas, where the previous Energy Minister, Angus Taylor, had left them.
KIERAN GILBERT: Are companies hoarding now? Why the blockages? What’s going on?
ANDREW CHARLTON: Well, Kieran, that is exactly why the ACCC has been tasked to make sure that there is no price gouging. It’s also why the energy minister has moved quickly to release 20% of our strategic fuel reserve and why we have changed Australian fuel standards so that more of the fuel made in Australia stays in Australia. That’s releasing 100 million litres of fuel that can be directed to the regions. It’s important to know, Kieran, that all of the ships that were coming to Australia with fuel have arrived and are on their way.
KIERAN GILBERT: This is the point, this is why it doesn’t add up though. This is why I think a lot of our viewers in the regions now, farmers who are watching and fishermen and others, because we have a lot of regional viewers, they’re saying, why aren’t we seeing the fuel?
ANDREW CHARLTON: Well, many regional users of fuel are in a very difficult situation because their access to fuel has been limited. That’s why the government is taking the action that it is. That’s why we’ve changed fuel standards, making sure that 100 million litres of additional fuel stays in Australia, and we’ve done a deal to make sure that that fuel is directed particularly to the regions. The regions are especially vulnerable to fuel shortages and that’s why they’ve been our priority in those actions.
KIERAN GILBERT: Zoe, I’m sure that some of your constituents would have been feeling the shortages. There’s just something in all of it that clearly doesn’t add up when you’re saying we’ve got the supply coming in, but these blockages in the supply chain, someone’s just… There’s got to be something. I mean, I’m glad the watchdog’s looking at it now, but it’s either hoarding, gouging, I don’t know how you describe it, but it doesn’t seem right.
ZOE MCKENZIE: Kieran, this has been nothing but a clown show from the beginning. At the beginning of last week, Chris Bowen was standing up and saying, don’t panic, everything’s fine, it’s your fault you’re buying too much fuel. By the end of the week, he admitted we had a national crisis. I did a bunch of democracy classes across schools in my electorate on Monday. I had kids in year seven who normally ask me about, you know, have you met Albo and have you met anyone famous in politics? They had one series of questions. Fuel security. Year seven. Affordability and supply. That goes to the fact that every household, every dinner table right now, is talking about supply chains and fuel. Not just can I fill my truck, but will there be food on my table in two weeks’ time? That’s what people are focused on. And the fact that the energy minister 10 days ago was telling us there was no problem here and then the grand solution today is another bureaucrat in the Prime Minister’s department. Are you kidding me? Where is the certainty? Where is the plan? Where is the confidence that Australians desperately need right now to know that they don’t need to go out and fill the car because there won’t be any fuel next week? They don’t have that confidence. No one’s giving them that confidence. Great, there’s another bureaucrat who might be able to give them that confidence in three weeks’ time. It’s not good enough.
KIERAN GILBERT: To be honest, the Opposition’s been saying that Prime Minister needs to take ownership. He’s moved it within his department, Andrew, so he clearly is seeing and feeling the importance of this now, not just the politics of it, but people are feeling it at the bowser.
ANDREW CHARLTON: Well, that’s right. The Prime Minister has appointed Anthea Harris, a very senior bureaucrat, to work within his department and across the states. It’s entirely appropriate and normal that he would do that. And it’s another action that the government has taken to make sure that we are ahead of this problem. To be clear, as I said, all of the ships that were bringing fuel to Australia have arrived. So when Chris Bowen says, as he did, that Australia’s fuel supply is secure, that is an accurate statement. What we do have is a challenge to make sure that that fuel gets where it needs to be, and that’s why we’ve taken those strong actions, including releasing the strategic reserve, changing fuel standards and keeping more of the fuel that is made in Australia, staying in Australia and directed to the regions. All of these are actions that we’ve taken in the wake of this crisis.
KIERAN GILBERT: Yeah, OK. Yeah, still… I understand all the actions. There’s still some inexplicable activity that I think explanation on that would be good too. But in terms of the uncertainty, Andrew Charlton, that continues in the Middle East, how do you see that flowing through? The Treasurer warning we could see inflation around 5%. And the jobs number today, a little tick up, higher than expected.
ANDREW CHARLTON: Well, the Treasurer has been clear that Australia is not immune from a big global shock like a war in the Middle East that will ripple through fuel prices that Australians are experiencing at the bowser right now and ultimately has the capacity to then fuel broader price rises across the economy. Think about the increases in the cost of freight, increases in costs of fertiliser, all of this feeds into impacts on inflation and the Treasurer has outlined the potential extent of that increase in inflation. There’s of course a lot of uncertainty about those impacts because we don’t know how long this war will last and how long the disruption to global fuel supply chains will last. But there’s no doubt that Australia will not be immune from this crisis and it will impact our inflation rate. That’s why it’s good that the government has done the hard work of getting inflation down from nearly 7% to where it is today. But clearly we have to continue to focus on that because these fuel challenges will only make the inflation problem more difficult.
KIERAN GILBERT: Yeah, it’s certainly a crisis. There’s no doubt about it internationally and this is a budget… amid the crisis, Zoe McKenzie, there’s that old adage in politics, never waste a good crisis. I wonder just how ambitious the government’s going to be on this front when it comes to reform.
ZOE MCKENZIE: I just think there’s another adage, which is when you can prepare for shocks of the future, you do. And this government hasn’t been doing that. Instead, they’ve been piling public spending into the Australian economy, sustaining inflation where it’s at, putting enormous pressure on households. We’ve now got the average mortgage holder having to find $25,000 additional each and every year just to pay their mortgage repayments. We know that real wages are going backwards. Somehow people have a $1,500 hole in their pocket now, and yet the Labor Party still stands up and tells people that they’ve got it good. Like honestly, talk to any Australian on any street corner, talk to the Year 7s in my local secondary school. They will tell you there are real concerns about how we are travelling and where we are going. So this government needs to do more. It needs to stop piling inflation into the Australian market so that people can just try and get ahead for a moment and we can take pressure off the RBA, which seems to be the only responsible economic manager in the picture.
KIERAN GILBERT: Zoe, while we’ve got the uncertainty, the fracturing of a lot of norms at the moment, the EU President, Ursula von der Leyen, she’s visiting next week. Do you welcome this? I know you’re very much someone that keeps an eye on European politics and trade as a trade expert yourself. It’s good we’ve got this deal finally done. It’s going to be inked on Tuesday, I’m told.
ZOE MCKENZIE: It does sound like it’s going to be inked on Tuesday. And to be fair, like I was working on this deal about 15 years ago when I was chief of staff to Andrew Robb. And can I remind you when I was chief of staff to Andrew Robb, we were given the task of finishing the deals with China, Japan and South Korea within 12 months, all of which we did. I think maybe one slipped into the 13th month. This is the one mega deal we have left the Albanese government to do. They almost got there in 2023 and then inexplicably pulled the plug at the last minute. Can you imagine how much better Australian exporters would be right now? And our supply chains had that deal been done when the opportunity presented years ago. But that’s OK. Three years later, we’re finally getting to it. And the woman who represents 450 million people hasn’t been invited to address the Australian parliament. What is that? Our natural partners shared values, not just in FTA but a strategic defence alliance as well, and she’s not going to address the Australian Parliament. Go figure.
KIERAN GILBERT: Andrew, your thoughts on that as a broader achievement? It’s obviously a good result. Zoe says better late than never.
ANDREW CHARLTON: Sure. I mean, this is a really important deal for Australia. The European Union is the second largest economy in the world. One in four Australian jobs depends on trade. As a Labor government, we believe in trade and we believe in open economies. I really give credit to Trade Minister Don Farrell here. At the moment, every country in the world is seeking to do a deal with the European Union, and Don’s hard work has put Australia at the front of that queue. This is a really important deal for Australia. It will bring great economic opportunities, and it’s terrific that Minister Farrell has focused on it, and we’re hoping that it gets delivered soon.
KIERAN GILBERT: And we can still call our Prosecco ‘Prosecco’, which my wife will be pleased about. Zoe McKenzie, Andrew Charlton, great to see you both. Catch you next week.
ENDS.
