AdBLUE — SUPPLY
1140. Hon Dr STEVE THOMAS to the Minister for Agriculture and
Food:
I refer to the critical impact on
the Western Australian trucking network and by extension the WA agricultural
supply chain of the shortage of the anti-pollutant AdBlue.
(1) What
engagement and or action has the government undertaken to secure a reliable,
continuous supply of AdBlue to the Western Australian trucking and agriculture
sectors?
(2) What is the
government's contingency plan for delivery supply chains to ensure
supermarkets receive deliveries, including food, over the Christmas and new
year period?
(3) What
certainty can the minister provide to the WA trucking and agriculture
industries, WA supermarkets and the Western Australian public that a reliable
and secure supply of AdBlue will be obtained?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for that
extremely interesting question.
(1)–(3) We
have been watching what is going on. It is very interesting that elsewhere
across the nation everyone has clearly put the federal government in the
spotlight because this product is almost entirely imported into this country
and China has recently put a trading halt on the importation of this product.
Possibly it is something to do with the fantastic relationships that Scott
Morrison has managed to generate. I do not know whether members opposite keep
in touch with Minister Angus Taylor, but according to a statement he put out
today, there is not really a problem. He says —
There are currently in excess of 15 million
litres of AdBlue supplies on hand, which is equivalent to close to 5 weeks of
the business-as-usual demand.
There are multiple shipments of
refined urea currently on their way to Australia, which are estimated to
provide over 2 weeks of additional supply �
Clearly, there is a problem. We know
there is a problem. It has been exacerbated in a way by the panic buying that
has gone on, according to the reports. We are urging—I think everyone
is urging—people to not go out and panic buy AdBlue; do not make this
into another toilet paper saga! Angus Taylor appears to believe that there are
adequate supplies. I note that people in the trucking industry, in our dealings
with them, have shown that they are pretty angry with the feds. They are
certainly concerned that the feds sold 27 000
litres of the base manufacturing agent to help out South Koreans when the
federal government was not being
terribly open and opaque with the local industry, seemingly. Through the Department
of Transport, we are working with the federal government. This is
principally a federal government issue, but we are certainly monitoring what is
happening here. I suggest that the member get on to Angus Taylor and raise
these concerns with him.
The
PRESIDENT: Thank you, minister. It is a good thing that we started question
time a few minutes early. I would invite members to have regard to standing
order 106 regarding concise and relevant answers.