It's probably not something that is said very often, but hopefully we will be hearing sometime very soon from Energy Minister Chris Bowen.

Subscribe now for unlimited access.

Login or signup to continue reading

The last interview posted on his ministerial website was with Sky News on July 5. His last fuel security update was on July 4. And his Facebook feed is dominated by local electorate announcements and posts on the success of renewables and electrical vehicle sales which are being heavily trolled.

The fuel security update on July 11 was delegated to the Education Minister Jason Clare as Mr Bowen was on leave.

Mr Clare reported there were 41 days of petrol, 37 days of diesel and 33 days of jet fuel on hand - well short of the 90 days required by the International Energy Agency. He confirmed 54 tankers were en route to Australia, with 3.5 billion litres of fuel locked in for delivery over the next four weeks.

But Mr Clare could not answer questions about deliveries after that which are now at risk. When asked "how far advanced have we got fuel locked in beyond the four weeks that you mentioned?" he replied "I don't have details beyond that, that's the information that I've got".

Ten days ago the Energy Minister was sanguine about energy security, telling Sky: "I'm very pleased with how we're going. It wasn't that long ago [Barnaby Joyce and Dan Tehan] basically said it was inevitable that we'd have rationing ... they said it was going to happen after Easter. Well, it's well after Easter now, and we have........

© Canberra Times