WA Premier Roger Cook adamant on keeping tight-lipped on which fuel suppliers aren’t complying with orders

The identity of which fuel supply companies are or are not complying with emergency orders will not be made public according to Roger Cook, despite his previous tough talk of the need for transparency. The comment came a day after the Premier announced state of emergency powers were being activated to force fuel companies to share otherwise commercially sensitive information with the Government. It came after it was revealed three out of six companies did not comply with the Premier’s letter sent last week asking them to voluntarily share the information. It appears the escalation has already begun to work, with a fourth company sharing information as of Thursday morning, according to Energy Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson. Mr Cook was asked on Thursday whether the Government would put public pressure on companies still not complying with the orders by naming them. He said he did not think it would be right to name and shame and denied that it would increase accountability. “We’re not going to name names, look we don’t do that in WA, we work together to make sure we get a good outcome,” he said. “The decisions that we took yesterday, the steps that we took yesterday provides them with complete protection, and obviously, now also comparison.” Mr Cook said he understood companies had previously been worried about breaking legal agreements by sharing information, but that the emergency powers would alleviate that concern. “The West Australian people need to know that we’ve got their back, and that’s what we’ve done,” he said. “We’re making sure that we’ve got the fuel supply, we’re making sure it gets to the communities that need it most in the Wheatbelt and the Goldfields, and we’re making sure that we are taking whatever precautions we need to ensure long term fuel security.” The West Australian understands BP had formally responded to Premier Roger Cook’s letter although the contents of the response is unknown. It is also understood Ampol supplied data to the WA Government. Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas said the Government should tell the public which companies were not playing ball. “The people of WA deserve to know which fuel companies haven’t done the right thing, and which fuel companies have prompted the State Government to use these extraordinary powers, albeit for the right reason,” he said. “I think that’s what full transparency looks like.” Speaking later in the day, Mr Cook also addressed Australia’s need for energy resilience, reflecting on the closure of BP’s Kwinana Refinery. “We’ve got a oil refinery in my electorate, actually, that shut down some years ago, when it moved from a refinery into transfer facility,” he told the ABC. “We all have the opportunity to reflect now on if that refinery was still operating, notwithstanding the global supply chain of crude oil, maybe we’d be in a better position today. “I’m working with industry at the moment, around a range of opportunities and proposals with regards to biofuels and other forms of alternative energy. “I think they’re really interesting conversations to have, and we should be looking and leaning in on those projects to see how we can continue to make sure that we have a resilience in our economy and capability of our sovereign manufacturing capacity.”