LABOR BACKS QLD RENEWABLE FUEL MANUFACTURING FOR DEFENCE

BRENDAN O’CONNOR MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR DEFENCE
MEMBER FOR GORTON 

17 May 2022

An Albanese Labor Government will bolster fuel security for our troops, while strengthening Australia’s biofuel manufacturing capacity.

Labor will provide a $5 million grant to Australian biotech firm Licella for the development of a commercial biorefinery capable of making military-spec fuel in Queensland’s Burdekin region.

The biorefinery will convert sugar cane waste into Australian made renewable liquid fuel.

Labor will task Defence to work with biofuel manufacturers on military-spec fuels, including through the Defence Fuel Transformation Program.

Labor will also make a high-level commitment to partner with the US and UK through mechanisms such as AUKUS on sustainable Australian-made liquid fuel, including for military purposes, as recommended on a bipartisan basis by the Joint Standing Committee on Defence Sub-Committee.

It’s a fact that half of the remaining fuel refineries in Australia have closed under Scott Morrison.

Defence consumes about one per cent of Australia’s total liquid fuels, and under Scott Morrison Defence has been left vulnerable to international supply chain disruption and increasing fuel prices.

In an increasingly contested Indo-Pacific, it is more important than ever to develop sovereign capacity in liquid fuel manufacturing, including biofuels, particularly for our Australian Defence Force.

Defence’s advice to Parliament is that up to 50 per cent of current fuels could ultimately be replaced with renewable fuels, but they require a commercialised industry.

Not only will this package strengthen Australian fuel security and supply chains for Defence, it will also provide new revenue streams for sugar cane farmers, create new jobs in manufacturing, and reduce emissions.

This grant follows support given by the Queensland Labor Government through its Waste to Biofutures fund.

In 2012 under Labor, the Royal Australian Navy signed an agreement with the US Navy to explore the increased use of environmentally-friendly fuels.

This was part of the Obama Administration’s Great Green Fleet initiative. The current Liberal Government has done nothing since.

Australia can’t risk another decade of inaction under the Liberals.