Laura Jayes: Let's go live to Canberra now, the Trade and Tourism Minister, Don Farrell. Don Farrell, thanks so much for your time. Do you think this war is won? Do you believe Donald Trump?
Minister for Trade and Tourism, Don Farrell: Look, nice to be with you, Laura, and sorry to miss you on Saturday night at the Adelaide elections. Look, I think we just wait and see. Look, it would be great news if the problems in the Middle East get solved and get solved quickly and we can return to normal relations. That would be very, very good news. But let's wait and see for further developments, I think.
Laura Jayes: Well, in the meantime, we're all paying the price of this war. It will come through inflation. We're already paying it through higher petrol prices. What is the plan this morning? We've got 500 petrol stations that are running out of fuel around the country, and you would have seen the prices.
Minister Farrell: Yeah, look, yesterday, of course, our Energy Minister, Chris Bowen, relaxed the rules on release of diesel fuels. Last week, we released more petrol. We are working through this as best we can. We didn't start this conflict, Laura. These problems have come from overseas. We're working through them in a calm and methodical way. We want to make sure that there's enough petrol, enough diesel, and enough airline fuel in the Australian system, and that's what we're working to do right now.
Laura Jayes: No, we didn't start the war, you're right, but we were quick to support it, and here we are. As Trade Minister, are you talking to counterparts [indistinct] either shoring up supply chains or finding new ones?
Minister Farrell: We're always talking with our colleagues in East Asia and Southeast Asia, and we'll continue to do that. Over the last four years, we've built up really good relationships with all of the countries in our region. We continue to supply them with very reliable supplies, particularly of gas. And we'll continue to do that, and we'll work with them to see in what ways can we help solve this problem. The Prime Minister recently made an announcement with our Singaporean colleagues about working together to resolve these issues. We'll keep talking to our friends in Asia.
Laura Jayes: Could we run out?
Minister Farrell: Look, I sincerely hope not, Laura.
Laura Jayes: Not entirely confident there, Minister.
Minister Farrell: The supplies - we're still getting supplies. Well, look, I'm a realist in all of these things. We continue to get supplies of all of that fuel into Australia. So, there is no reason to panic and certainly no reason to panic buy at the moment. And we're going to do our level best in what are very difficult, and might I say uncharted times, to ensure that Australians continue to get access to the fuel that they need.
Laura Jayes: You're getting pressure from Labor premiers now. They're kind of asking, well, what's the plan here? Are they fair enough questions, and is there a national plan? We had a National Cabinet convened, then we had a fuel coordinator, but we haven't seen anything real [indistinct] being done.
Minister Farrell: Look, we are doing practical things, Laura. I don't think that's a fair criticism.
Laura Jayes: Okay.
Minister Farrell: As I said yesterday, Minister Bowen released more diesel fuels the week before there was petrol. We're in contact with all of our neighbours in the region. So, you know, we are working through these issues to ensure that Australians continue to get access to the petrol and the diesel that they need.
Laura Jayes: In all this chaos, you've done an EU trade deal with Ursula von der Leyen. She was here. That was inked yesterday. I mean, what do you think this says to the rest of the world? Because, you know, we talk about the rules-based order and how important that is, but these rules have been flouted in recent times. Are you still kind of holding onto that? Is it naive?
Minister Farrell: Laura, we have to demonstrate to the rest of the world that there are still countries that believe in free and fair trade. So much of Australia's prosperity is reliant on trade. And what Australia signed with the European Union yesterday was further evidence that we can, in fact, go down the path of free and fair trade and avoid protectionism.
This agreement brings billions of dollars extra into the Australian economy. And our wonderful food, wonderful wine, which has been kept out of Europe for the last 50 years, now will get into Europe in a very, very significant way. Our farmers will do well out of it, our winemakers will do well out of it, our miners will do well out of it, as will our manufacturers. This is a really, really good deal for Australia. And I was pleased that on Monday in Sydney, we were finally able to reach agreement that we'd been unable to do for the last 15 years.
Laura Jayes: Don Farrell, it's good to talk to you. Good to have you on the show. We'll have to do a deep dive on One Nation and South Australia, your mentee, Peter Malinauskas as well, for a second term. We'll do that another time. Looking forward to that. We'll see you soon.
Minister Farrell: Thanks. Any time.
