![\"Chris](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/27ac394f01285e6af44b4eee472ac022.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nShadow home affairs minister Jonathon Duniam says Chris Bowen’s decision to attend a climate conference in the middle of the petrol crisis shows Australia has a “part-time energy minister.”<\/p>\n
The criticism comes after Mr Bowen travelled to Brisbane to attend a climate meeting linked to the upcoming global COP summit, despite mounting pressure on fuel supplies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The event, which brought together ministers from across the Pacific, focused on emissions reduction and climate cooperation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Duniam said the timing of the trip raised serious concerns about Mr Bowen’s priorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s part-time energy minister, part-time climate champion, and chair of the COP program,\u201d he told Sky News host Caleb Bond on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cHe can only devote so much of that part-time work to dealing with this crisis, which he told us only seven days ago was not a real thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two weeks ago, Mr Bowen told reporters Australia had in reserve \u201c36 days\u2019 worth of petrol, 34 days\u2019 worth of diesel, and 32 days\u2019 worth of jet fuel\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the shadow home affairs minister, the claim there is no petrol supply issue, highlights the delusion from this government.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time someone asked a question in parliament, we were accused of spreading misinformation and whipping up fear and panic around fuel supplies,\u201d he said, regarding the fuel shortage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut today, here I am in Sydney\u00a0…\u00a0I was told that there were 100 petrol stations in Sydney today that are coming close to running out of fuel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat does not sound like a normal situation to me.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
The fuel squeeze has been felt most in regional areas, where diesel prices have climbed sharply, in some cases pushing beyond $3 a litre.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The government has acknowledged pressure on supply\u00a0chains but\u00a0has\u00a0maintained\u00a0the situation\u00a0remains\u00a0under control.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Duniam rejected that assessment, arguing the response had been inadequate and that Mr Bowen should focus more on his position as energy minister.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey’ve lost the plot and he should get back on the job he was elected to do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The criticism echoes concerns from the opposition that the government is attempting to manage a complex energy challenge while balancing international climate commitments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Bowen has played a key role in global climate discussions and is expected to attend the COP summit, further fuelling debate about whether his focus is divided.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The shadow minister argues travelling to Brisbane to reduce climate emissions is not in the national interest at the minute.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have a minister fluffing around in Brisbane,\u00a0talking about bringing down climate emissions, well, how on earth is that in our national interest?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For Mr Duniam, the fuel crisis reflects a deeper problem with priorities at the highest levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo,\u00a0we’ve got parliament next week,\u00a0and\u00a0I expect they’ll want to bring in\u00a0laws,\u00a0but you’d think a government seriously interested in national security would have a plan on the table today to assure Australians there’s no risk,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut here we are more worried about climate change and votes in certain communities and getting things right.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shadow home affairs minister Jonathon Duniam says Chris Bowen’s decision to attend a climate conference in the middle…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":670465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[97226,4740,65966,285,283039,274771,56554,50],"class_list":["post-670464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-albanese-government","tag-australia","tag-chris-bowen","tag-climate-change","tag-energynbspminister","tag-fuel-shortages","tag-jonathon-duniam","tag-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116264715463810576","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}