Interview with Kieran Gilbert, Sky News, Newsday

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SKY NEWS NEWSDAY
FRIDAY, 13 MARCH 2026
 
SUBJECTS: Fuel for Australia’s farmers and producers

KIERAN GILBERT, HOST: Welcome back to the program. I want to go live now to Hobart. The Minister for Agriculture joins me, Julie Collins. I know you've got a lot of feedback from farmers, from fishers, that they're not getting the fuel they need. Is it time to declare agriculture and fisheries an essential industry and ensure they get the diesel and the fuel they need? Because otherwise we risk our food supply, don't we?

JULIE COLLINS, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: Thanks, Kieran, and good afternoon to your viewers. And certainly, our government has been taking very seriously the needs of our farmers and our fishers, particularly when it comes to supplies of fuel. And you've seen today that the Minister for Energy, Chris Bowen, has talked about releasing some of our stockpile into the regions as a measure to make sure that we can get fuel into our regions where a lot of our farming and agriculture is.

GILBERT: Yes, but you're relying on the major companies to do it, aren't you? In that sense, the Farmers’ Federation say you need to look at the option of using the Liquid Fuel Emergency Act of 1984 and declare agriculture an essential industry. Are you considering that?

COLLINS: Kieran, what we're doing is we're using all the levers available to us. Minister Bowen has been out today, and he has been talking about working with the fuel companies to ensure that these supplies get into our regions where they're needed for our farmers and our fishers, and importantly for our trucking industry as well, to make sure that our food supply and our food production continues to occur right across the country. Let me reiterate that we are receiving and continue to receive fuel supplies in the normal way and in the normal volumes. And we're encouraging Australians to go about their normal business and to refuel in the normal way. What we want to do here and what we are doing is working with those important industries to ensure that we can continue to have farmers farming and our fishers fishing, and that we can continue to have that food production occurring in Australia. And we are meeting regularly, and I'm hearing daily, really, from farmers and fishers right across the country about some of the challenges that they are experiencing. And what you've seen from our Government is we are responding to those, and we are using every lever available to us. We're looking at what other levers we may need, and we're dealing with it in a considered…

GILBERT:…so, you are open to, you're open to it if needed, you are open to that?

COLLINS: Well, we're dealing with this in a very considered way, and we're responding very, very quickly. I mean, you're talking about this war outbreak, you know, less than two weeks ago. And what you've seen from our Government is coordinated, considered response, but timely responses also. And we're also, of course, starting this in a better position than we have been any time in the last 15 years because of our Government's actions. But we are listening really carefully and responding to industry, working with the Australian Institute of Petroleum, working with our trucking association, Fertiliser Australia, and indeed our farmers. And we are responding to that in a very considered way.

GILBERT: Have they raised this with you as a possibility that agriculture should be declared an essential industry for the purposes of fuel supply? Have they raised this with you?

COLLINS: What I would say, Kieran, is we have many conversations whereby we're raising a whole range of things that we need to do. But what you've seen from our Government is responding urgently and quickly, but in a considered way, to the needs of our farmers and our fishers. And we have been dealing with those issues as quickly as we can.

GILBERT: So, you guarantee that they will get the fuel supply they need? Do you guarantee the Government will provide that fuel supply? Because we are talking about the food supply of the nation, aren't we?

COLLINS: Well, Australia, of course, is quite food secure compared to other nations. We can produce almost everything we need, around 98 per cent of it. We do supply around two and a half times what we can eat. But importantly, we also, of course, supply some of our near neighbours and export right across the globe, with around 70 per cent in volume and 80 per cent of value going around.

GILBERT: So you guarantee they'll get that fuel they need?

COLLINS: What I can say, Kieran, is I guarantee that we'll continue to work very closely with them and our Government will use and do everything we need to do to ensure that we can keep farmers farming and our fishers fishing.

GILBERT: And that does include that emergency provision if need be?

COLLINS: What I can say is we continue to work with everybody. We continue to look at all of our levers to pull, the ones that we need to pull as quickly as we need to pull them, and to make sure that we can keep farmers farming and fishers fishing. We're taking this very seriously, as I'm sure you appreciate. We're having our roundtables once a week, but we are daily keeping in touch with people in the industry, with farmers, with fishers and with industry organisations to make sure that we're across the detail of what is actually happening on the ground. I've been hearing from fishers that were concerned they wouldn't have enough fuel to go out and feed stock. I've been hearing from fishers that have been concerned they're not going to be able to go out and get their catch. I've been listening to farmers who, you know, rice growers and cotton growers, who are about to go and harvest crops. I've been talking to horticulture farmers and grain farmers who are about to plant their crop about where things are at for them when it comes to fuel and to fertiliser. And we're taking the feedback incredibly seriously.

GILBERT: Would you consider easing rebates or fuel excise for providing rebates or easing the excise for that specific industry or those industries for this period where there are hikes?

COLLINS: Well, obviously, our priority has been keeping Australians safe, both here at home and abroad. And then our next priority is about making sure that Australians have the essentials they need, such as fuel and food. And we have been doing that and working through that in a considered way, you know, we are working through this in a very considered, mature way, but we are responding quickly and urgently as we need to, to do everything we can do to do that in the national interest, Kieran. And I would implore everybody here to not see that what is happening in the Middle East as a political opportunity or indeed a commercial opportunity to anybody along those supply chains, and let's all work together in the national interest here. That is what matters, and that's what Australians expect of us at this point in time. Australians want us all working together. They want everybody they're batting in the national interest. At times like this, it's critical that we all do come together.

GILBERT: Yeah, absolutely. I've just been looking at Hamish McIntyre, the NFF, the Farmers' Federation President, and he's warning that the fuel supply emergency or crisis, international crisis, as the Minister put it, is vastly risking, you know, becoming a food supply crisis. So, you're cognisant of just how precarious things are now?

COLLINS: Well, what you've seen from our Government is an announcement from Minister Bowen today that we'll release some of the national stockpile on the condition that it goes into those regions and into those areas where we need it to go, where they are experiencing some challenges with access to fuel. And that has been, you know, the strategy from our Government, as I said, careful, considered, responding quickly, using levers that we have available to us and considering what other levers we may need as we move forward.

GILBERT: Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Julie Collins, joining us from Hobart. Thanks, appreciate it.

COLLINS: Thanks.

ENDS