Anthony Albanese boasts strong ties with Singapore will help Australia secure much-need supplies of fuel

Anthony Albanese has promised his strong relationship with Singapore will help Australia secure much-needed fuel supplies, after his Treasurer admitted motorists are now paying more for diesel than when taxes were first halved a week ago.

The Prime Minister made the diplomatic boast at Ampol’s Lytton refinery in Brisbane on Thursday before heading to Singapore for a two-day visit that will include a meeting with his counterpart Lawrence Wong, whose nation is Australia’s biggest supplier of unleaded fuel and the second most important source of diesel and jet fuel.

“We don’t preempt one-on-one meetings at leaders levels, but the fact that we have been welcomed on relatively short notice to Singapore speaks about the strength of the relationship,” he told reporters.

The annual leaders’ meeting is occurring on Friday as Australia seeks to secure fuel supplies beyond May, following a fragile truce between the US and Iran that shows no sign of alleviating a global oil shock that could be worse than the 1970s crises in the Middle East.

“I’m looking forward to a constructive meeting with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong tomorrow,” Mr Albanese said.

“This is an important relationship. We have spent four years building relationships in our region, particularly with ASEAN leaders.

“Prime Minister Wong and Singapore, the relationship that we have is a critical one, and of course Singapore is a major supplier of fuel to Australia.”

A day after the US and Iran announced a two-week ceasefire, Mr Albanese said the economic effects of Iran blockading the Strait of Hormuz will linger.

“An end to the conflict, even if it is a permanent end of the conflict that we want to see, doesn’t mean that Straits of Hormuz reopened and that it’s back to business as usual,” he said.

“This will have a long tail, which is why after this we will travel to Singapore.”

Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen declined to confirm Australia had fuel supplies locked in beyond May.

“I’m not asserting that that supply is yet locked in all through June. I will assert it’s well into May. That means several weeks into May,” he told reporters in Brisbane.

With Australia down to 39 days’ supply of petrol, Treasurer Jim Chalmers took aim at US President Donald Trump, blaming him for “unpredictability, uncertainty and volatility in the global economy”.

“Obviously, these were decisions taken around the table of the Situation Room in Washington DC, but Australians are assembled around their kitchen tables working out how to pay for it,” he told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.

“Australians didn’t choose the circumstances of this war. These decisions were taken in the first instance by the Americans, but Australians are paying a hefty price for that.”

Dr Chalmers admitted average diesel prices of $3.19 a litre were higher than on April 1, when they were at $3.07 a litre on the day fuel excise was halved to 26.3 cents a litre.

On the last day of March, average capital city diesel prices were at $3.22 a litre, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission data showed.

“From memory, only down about five cents since the end of March, and that’s because these are two different benchmarks and two different markets,” Dr Chalmers said.

Petrol costs a lot less because its wholesale price has surged by 38 per cent rise since the US strikes on Iran in late February, compared with 55 per cent for diesel.

A deal with the states and territories to return GST revenue to motorists takes the total relief to 32 cents a litre until June 30.

Average unleaded prices in Melbourne have since fallen to $2.25 a litre, down from $2.57 a litre at the end of March.

Almost six weeks into the Middle East conflict, Dr Chalmers said he found it “bizarre frankly” there were critics of renewable energy as he announced a series of pilot projects in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and NSW.

“They fail to understand that cleaner and cheaper energy and sovereign capacity are not just environmental or economic issues, as important as those things are, but also national security issues,” he said.

“If we’ve learnt anything from the last month and a bit, it’s that cleaner and cheaper fuels, sovereign capacity, refining, manufacturing, these things are more important than ever in the context of this extreme pressure that we’ve seen on our global supply chains. That’s why we’re big believers.”

The Opposition’s energy spokesman Dan Tehan, a former diplomat, said Mr Albanese should have been holding meetings with his Singapore counterpart six weeks ago.

“The fact that they’re only doing it now just shows you how badly wrong their approach has been to dealing with this national fuel crisis and I think has shown they did not understand how important liquid fuel still is to the running of this nation,” he told The Nightly.

“We should have been on to this five or six weeks ago when the war started.”

The Federal Coalition is also backing the Queensland Government’s Taroom Trough project to provide Australia’s first new oil field in 50 years, but Labor is lukewarm with Mr Bowen saying the State had yet to contact Environment Minister Murray Watt.

“He’s got to actually receive some communications from the Queensland Government,” he said.

Singapore was last year Australia’s biggest supplier of refined unleaded, providing 55 per cent of petrol imports.

The Asian oil refining giant supplies a quarter of Australia’s imported fuel needs. It is the second biggest provider of diesel after South Korea and the second biggest supplier of jet fuel after China.

Crude oil prices are back at $US97 a barrel, moderating from record highs above $US100 a barrel, after the US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire in a bid to resolve Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

NSW continues to have Australia’s worst diesel shortage with 112 service stations running out, making up 4.6 per cent of outlets.

Transaction data from National Australia Bank customers shows fuel spending has soared by 53 per cent since February, as consumers spent less on other items in a sign the global fuel shock will squeeze other parts of the economy.

The Federal Government on Thursday announced four projects had been chosen for its Investor Front Door pilot program focused on renewable energy.

They include HAMR Energy’s renewable fuel projects in Victoria and South Australia converting biomass waste into carbon liquid fuels; Ardea Resources’ Kalgoorlie nickel project; New Energy Transport’s Wilton project in south-west Sydney to develop zero-carbon electric freight trucks; and Murchison Green Hydrogen’s project in Western Australian producing large-scale ammonia from wind and solar.

With an economic slowdown looming, as a result of the worst energy shock since the 1970s, Labor is under pressure to reduce spending that could fuel inflation, ahead of the May 12 Budget.

But the Climate Council on Thursday called for the Government to extend its Electric Car Discount, now under review, that enables employers to provide an electric car worth up to $91,387 without having to pay fringe benefits tax.

“Every additional EV reflects permanently lower oil demand, and more fuel available for those who still need it,” it said.

It is also calling for the phasing out of the diesel fuel rebate, even though soaring fuel costs threaten to push up food prices.

“Credits above this cap should be redirected to support the uptake of zero-emissions machinery, unlocking billions of dollars in Budget-neutral support for energy security,” it said.