Karl Stefanovic, Host: Well, cheaper petrol is on the way for Australians this morning after the PM cut the fuel excise. Foreign Minister Penny Wong joins us now live from Canberra. Penny, thanks for your time this morning. Look, you can cut the fuel excise, but the reality is you don't have any control over prices, do you?
Penny Wong, Foreign Minister: Morning, Karl. Good to be with you. Ultimately, the market sets the price. What the Government can do is try and give some relief at the bowser and that's what we've done with the decision yesterday. But we've also got to deal with supply and distribution, which is what we are working to do.
Stefanovic: The point is, if prices keep going up, the 26 cents will eventually evaporate pretty quickly, right?
Foreign Minister: Look, it's relief at the bowser at a time we see petrol prices rising. But you're right, the prices are being driven by the conflict in the Middle East and what that is doing to global energy markets. You know, Iran is holding the Strait of Hormuz hostage. 20% of the world's oil goes through that, but 70% of the oil that comes to our region, to be refined in the refineries of Asia, of which we are a customer. So, that is going to have an effect and is having an effect that families here in Australia are feeling. The Prime Minister's announcement yesterday after National Cabinet provides some relief both to drivers of vehicles, but also to commercial users.
Stefanovic: We don't know, I think at home, why one service station on any particular street is 30 cents difference to another on the same street. There's just no transparency from oil companies. We don't know how much we should be paying. Do you have any idea?
Foreign Minister: Look, first I'd make the point about the fuel excise. That obviously won't flow through until first we've got to change the law and the wholesale price changes. And then service stations will obviously need to sell the fuel that has had the high excise rate before you'll see that flow through to the bowser.
Stefanovic: So, how long will that be? Is that likely to happen before Easter?
Foreign Minister: It depends on the service station, I suppose, whether they've worked through the fuel they already have and whether they receive wholesale fuel at the discounted price.
Stefanovic: So it's not necessarily an Easter break for people?
Foreign Minister: I think what Australians can see, though, is that the Government has taken 26.3 cents off the excise rate. That will obviously have an effect at the bowser. But you're right, we're not pretending that this will fix all the problems. We've got to deal with supply. One of the really important announcements that the Prime Minister made on the weekend was that the Government would be underwriting private purchases by companies of supply. That's about recognising there's a higher risk premium, but trying to get more fuel into the Australian market, particularly into regional areas. And I know you've been very focused, quite rightly Karl, on distribution. This is focused very much on how do we get, not just more fuel into Australia, but also to where we need it. Because distribution's been a real challenge through this, as we all know.
Stefanovic: You've been banging on about this and so has the Government, about supply being okay, but the issue is that prices keep going up and no one can answer that question why we're paying $3, $3 30, $3.50 $3.80 for diesel right now. No one can explain it.
Foreign Minister: Well, diesel, there's been more supply constraints around that and Chris Bowen's been upfront about that and one of the reasons that I spoke very early on to Singapore, as you might recall, which led to the agreement that was announced around reliability of supplies, we get so much of our diesel from Singapore. We're a very large user of diesel per capita because of the nature of our economy, mining, agriculture and of course we're a big country.
Stefanovic: All right. In relation to Iran, the PM wants US objectives. Do you know what those objectives are?
Foreign Minister: The US has described, Marco Rubio described overnight the US objectives in military terms, which was to degrade the navy, the air force, the industrial base which produces missiles and drones and their launch capability. Now there's obviously been a lot of degrading of that and that is a good thing. You would have heard me right from the beginning though, Karl, saying that we had real doubts about the objective of regime change. And why is that the case? Because historically we all know as bad as a regime is, it's very difficult to impose regime change externally. That's why I think on this program I said to you, it's ultimately something the Iranian people have to determine.
Stefanovic: Alright, just finally it's pretty apparent that as much as people do feel genuinely for the Iranian people, this war is no longer in Australia's best interests.
Foreign Minister: We want to see de-escalation and dialogue and we want to see a way out of this conflict. It's having an enormous effect on global markets and it's having an effect on Australians at the bowser. And that's what the Prime Minister and I have outlined.
Stefanovic: Alright. Hopefully you'll hear from the US sometime soon. Penny, thank you.