Interview with Prue Bentley, ABC Victorian Statewide Drive

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW 
ABC VIC STATEWIDE DRIVE
WEDNESDAY, 31 MARCH 2026

SUBJECTS: Supporting farmers impacted by Middle East conflict

PRUE BENTLEY, HOST: Julie Collins is the Federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, and joins me now. Julie Collins, good afternoon.

JULIE COLLINS, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: Good afternoon, Prue, and good afternoon to your listeners.

BENTLEY: So yesterday the Government announced that they're going to be halving the fuel excise, about 26 cents a liter, and they're also suspending the heavy vehicle road user charge for three months from 1 April. Now I chatted with the President of the VFF yesterday, Brett Hosking, here in Victoria, and I asked him whether these measures were going to help his industry, particularly in agriculture. This is what he said.

BRETT HOSKING: I mean finally, they're doing something, so let's claim the positive in that, but it really isn't going to make a big difference to our farmers. Right now we've got farmers right across the state who   I mean, yes, they're worried about the price, but their main concern is can they get fuel or not, and making fuel cheaper, giving people a reason to go and top their car up, I don't think that's going to help, I think we need to fix the supply issue, then we fix the price issue. They're two kind of they're related, but they're distinct issues, and if we can fix the supply issues, then, yes, we start tackling the price head on then.

BENTLEY: Minister Collins, what is the Government doing around supply issues, particularly for producers?

COLLINS: Yeah, thank you, Prue, and what we have been doing since we came into this situation, of course, is been meeting regularly with farmers and agricultural organisations to make sure that we get feedback from them and responding appropriately. One thing you've seen our Government do in relation to fuel distribution is to work with the petroleum companies, but also importantly, to release 20 per cent of our stockpiles, and only doing that on the condition that it goes to the regions where a lot of our farming communities are. So it's about making sure that we prioritise supply for those regions and those areas.

BENTLEY: How are you deeming which areas need that supply, have the greatest need, I suppose, and many the greatest shortage, because you know, as we just said, very big country, how are you mapping that at the moment?

COLLINS: Yeah, well, certainly the Minister for Energy and his department have been working with the industry, with the petroleum industry and the distributors, and working with independent distributors as well to look at where there are those shortages and to get fuel into those areas. But we've also of course changed the standards in relation to petrol and to diesel, which will allow more fuel into the system as well as the 20 per cent release from the stockpile. We've also of course tasked the ACCC in terms of making sure that the fuel companies can talk to each other to make sure that we can actually work through some of those distribution issue. And we acknowledge that there are challenges, but we also, you know, have been very clear that the ships of fuel that were coming to Australia continue to arrive in their usual numbers, and we've been very busy shoring up supply of future shipments to Australia to make sure that we can do everything we can do to shield Australian citizens, Australian farmers and Australian households really from what is a conflict in the Middle East that is impacting here in Australia but also right across the globe.

BENTLEY: If that conflict does go on for not just weeks but even months, and then fuel supplies are diminished or are impacted even further, at what point does the Government say, look, we might need to bring in rationing, or we may need to grab fuel and keep it aside for farmers, for producers specifically?

COLLINS: Well, we've obviously been very clear in our actions today, and what we've been doing to ensure supply for farmers is that farming and our food production and supply system is really critical to Australia, and you've seen us act and respond and actually listen to farmers the whole way along since this conflict began. We've also of course been working with those energy companies, as I've said, with the petroleum companies to make sure that the fuel gets to where it needs to go. Yesterday National Cabinet adopted a four point plan in relation to the National Fuel Security Plan, and we're at courage at Stage 2, we're doing everything that we can do as a government to remain at Stage 2 or to actually come down from Stage 2, and Stage 2 is, of course, to keep Australia moving, and that is our primary focus and concern, but as I say, we continue to engage right across various industries and make sure that we are listening to them and responding with those challenges, we're responding to the short term challenges, but we're also planning for the medium and long term, and what we want to see is consistency across the country, which is why this is happening through National Cabinet, also of course the states and territories, as we found out during COVID have most of the levers available at their level of government as well.

BENTLEY: What's the threshold though, what's the trigger point to go to Level 3 if we need to?

COLLINS: Well, the National Cabinet has said that it will decide when we move from Level 2 to 3 if that becomes necessary at any point in time. You know, we've been clear, and we don't know how long this conflict is going to go for, but what we're doing is we're making sure that we're over prepared and doing everything we can do to deal with the challenges of today, but also the medium and longer term if it goes on for some time.

BENTLEY: Minister, I've got a few questions from our listeners if you wouldn't mind answering a few of them. I've gone one here asking, it's Al from Wagga, who wants to know whether you're going to be considering protecting family farms through this crisis. She says, "As soon as shortages occur corporate farms with high bargaining power get the product and smaller family farms lose out". Will that be considered?

COLLINS: I think what you've seen from our Government, as I indicated earlier, Prue, is that we want all farmers to be able to continue farming throughout this, and that's certainly been the primary focus of our Government. It's been our focus in relation to what we're doing to secure extra supplies of fuel, it's been our focus in terms of some of the distribution challenges we've been facing, it's been our focus in making sure we can get more fuel into the system, and even today we've established a Fertiliser Working Group across governments, but importantly with industry to make sure that our farmers can get that other critical input of fertiliser as well.

BENTLEY: Let's talk about the Fertiliser Working Group, because this has been one of the other big queries and concerns. I note that one of my correspondents, one of my listeners, has said you were quoted as saying crop yields could be somewhat diminished because of fertiliser shortages. There was backlash from farmers who said that it would be greatly diminished, that would be a better description. They're saying that this fertiliser shortage is a real problem. So tell me a bit about what this working group is looking at.

COLLINS: Yeah. So this is a working group that will be across government agencies, but also importantly with Fertilizer Australia, with the National Farmers Federation and with other industry groups about making sure that we can source fertiliser coming into the country and then also deal with the distribution of fertiliser to make sure that farmers that need it are getting the fertiliser that they do need. We do know that there's enough fertiliser in the country from talking to suppliers of fertiliser, at the moment or on the water for the initial cropping season, and making sure that people can get the plantings in, but we do know that our farmers want certainty going into the future, and that's what we're doing, working with the industry and with the sector to shore up supplies into the future.

BENTLEY: How do you deal with that lack of confidence? You might say that there's enough fertiliser in the country for every farming operation, but we are absolutely hearing on the ground from farmers who speak to us that say, "I just don't have confidence, and if I don't have the fertiliser, I'm just not going to plant my crop".

COLLINS: And that's why we're moving to provide that confidence and to work with industry and do as much as we can do to shield farmers. As I said, this is impacting globally; other countries are of course competing for fertiliser shipments right across the globe, and what we want to do is to make sure that we're in a position to source them. We're talking to, you know, other countries, particularly in the South East Asian region to make sure that we can get more fertiliser into Australia, and that's what the point of the working group is; it's about responding and working with industry. We're also making some changes to the ACCC so that these companies can talk to each other and work with each other to make sure that we get those supplies into the country, and then we then get the distribution correct.

BENTLEY: With me now is Julie Collins who is the Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Minister at a Federal level. She's answering your questions and mine too. I understand too that you are going to be deferring the export cost. Now you'll have to explain what this is. This is a regulatory mechanism, and it is very specific to the agriculture industry. Tell us what you're doing there.

COLLINS: It is. Across Government we have what we call a cost recovery mechanism, and that is whereby we cost recover from organisations, individuals, when Government services are required to help them, you know, do things such as export or other things. So it's essentially where the amount of demand increases the amount of response Government needs to provide. So for our exporters, of course, what we've seen is exports grow considerably, what we haven't seen is an update to the way the Government charges for our exports for some years, and we were scheduled to change the way that we do that from 1 July this year. What we have done is, after feedback from industry, we have deferred that for a year to 1 July 2027. This comes at a cost to taxpayers of around $18 million, but this is because we've listened to industry and recognised, you know, the current circumstances and the fact that they are dealing with higher input costs at a very difficult time because of this conflict and the way that it is impacting here in Australia and right across the globe.

BENTLEY: I've got a lot of questions here, Julie Collins, I'm not sure we're going to get to all of them. But I did want to ask this one from Rod in Ballarat about fuel tax credits that farmers receive. He's asking whether they will remain at 52.6 cents, or will they be reduced by that 26 cents as a result of the fuel excise being halved, making it a net zero benefit to farmers?

COLLINS: Well, the diesel fuel rebate and those rebates will work in the usual way that they have in the past, so there's no changes to the way that we're going to be calculating them. They will apply in the way they've always applied when these changes have been made in the past, they'll apply in the same manner this time.

BENTLEY: So they will be applied at the new rate?

COLLINS: They'll be applied in the way they have been applied in the past.

BENTLEY: And sorry, does that mean that the rate that is being charged at the fuel station, that is the rate that will be used?

COLLINS: People will be getting the rebate for what the cost is.

BENTLEY: They pay?

COLLINS: Yep.

BENTLEY: Right. I see. Okay. Thank you very much for clarifying that. And just on fuel, Brett has a more general question about the fact that fuel prices went up so rapidly when all the fuel was already here on the ground here in Australia, and a lot of people have been asking this question. He says the fuel companies have just been ripping us off. Can the ACCC get to the bottom of that, and will anybody be punished?

COLLINS: Well, we've obviously given the ACCC more powers in relation to making sure that any cartel behaviour or any false advertising in the way that they've gone about this can be punishable, so we've doubled that penalty to $100 million. The ACCC has already put out a statement, I think it was last week, saying that they will be investigating and looking and very closely monitoring the situation, because I think, you know, all Australians are very concerned about what has happened, but it has also been happening in countries right across the globe in terms of, you know, the barrel price of oil has increased significantly, it's almost doubled since this crisis, and it is impacting everybody right across the globe.

BENTLEY: Should the ACCC be given powers to investigate price gouging from petrol stations in the same way they are with supermarkets?

COLLINS: Well, that's certainly, you know, what we've done with the laws around the cartels and around the false advertising, it essentially will put them on notice in relation to the way that they go about the charges and what they are doing, and the claims that they're making to the Australian public in relation to price.

BENTLEY: Julie Collins, thank you very much for your time.

COLLINS: Thanks very much.