PM’s $1b handout to ‘buffer’ businesses from war
Source: Anthony Albanese
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will offer a $1 billion package to help businesses while promising to “buffer” Australians from “what the world throws at us” in a significant speech on Thursday.
Albanese will address the National Press Club and is expected to announce support for businesses affected by the fuel supply crisis, including truckies, fuel suppliers and fertiliser producers.
The speech comes after Albanese gave a rare address to the nation on Wednesday night across all TV and radio platforms about steps taken to lessen the impacts of the war in the Middle East.
Critics such as Greens senator David Shoebridge slammed the three-minute address as a “nothing burger” that inspired no confidence.
US President Donald Trump will also deliver a major address to Americans about the Middle East war on Thursday (AEDT).
The Albanese government will offer businesses interest-free loans from the federal government to lessen the impact of the war. The low-cost loans will be accessible within a fortnight.
The loans for struggling businesses will be distributed as part of the government’s $1 billion economic resilience program in the National Reconstruction Fund.
Albanese will say the loans will be critical to getting not just the businesses, but the wider economy, through the crisis caused by the fuel shocks.
“No government can promise to eliminate the pressures this crisis will impose, but we will be a buffer against the worst of it, a shock absorber in a time of global shocks,” he will say.
“We will do everything we can to protect the Australian people from what the world throws at us.”
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The situation in the Middle East and the inflationary challenges it has caused will cast a shadow over May’s federal budget, as the fallout from spikes in petrol prices continue.
Albanese will say a balance will need to be struck in the budget between making the country more resilient, as well as providing cost-of-living relief.
“It is our government’s most important budget to date, and it will be our most ambitious. It has to be,” he will say.
“The scale of the challenge facing us, and the breadth of opportunities ahead of us, demand that ambition and that urgency.”
PM’s national address
On Wednesday night, Albanese gave a rare national address warning there may be difficult times ahead and asking Australians to look out for one another.
He urged people to consider getting public transport to work instead of driving in a bid to preserve the nation’s fuel reserves.
Albanese also told motorists heading on road trips over Easter to only take as much petrol and diesel as they needed.
“That builds our reserves and it saves fuel for people who have no choice but to drive: Farmers and miners and tradies who need diesel, every single day,” he said.
“These are uncertain times. But I am absolutely sure of this. We will deal with these global challenges the Australian way: Working together, and looking after each other.”
Shoebridge slammed Albanese for failing to inspire confidence.
“A national address needs a national leader and a clear set of actions, this one had Albanese and a series of empty phrases workshopped through focus groups,” he wrote on X.
“What an empty man he is and what a hollow government.
“What we needed was a clear path away from the US and its dangerous wars.
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“Instead we got a nothing burger message with an undertone that things will only get worse.”
Former Liberal adviser Tony Barry said that the speech, while intended to calm Australians’ nerves as the Middle East oil crisis worsened, could have the opposite effect.
Albanese has a -17 favourability rating, according to Barry’s polling company Redbridge, well behind Opposition Leader Angus Taylor and One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.
Barry said a speech to the nation with such a low approval rating was a recipe for disaster.
“Standing up and telling everybody not to panic is a sure way to make everybody panic,” he said.
“People are observing that going to the petrol station is now like a scene from Mad Max.
“They’ll be expecting solutions from the government,” he said.
The decision to cut the fuel excise but then tell motorists to consider avoiding unnecessary petrol and diesel use was also politically flawed, Barry said.
“He’s reduced the price of petrol, and now he’s telling people don’t buy this cheaper petrol,” he said.
Ahead of Albanese’s speech, Western Australia’s government activated emergency powers, allowing it to force the fuel industry to share information about its supply chains.
The move will allow the state government to demand specific details about where fuel is and where it’s needed, to try to alleviate shortages in some areas.
Premier Roger Cook said it wasn’t the same as declaring a state of emergency as was done during the Covid pandemic, but was rather targeted specifically at the fuel industry.
“Unfortunately our efforts are being hampered by not having full visibility of the fuel supply chain,” he said in Perth on Wednesday.
“In some cases we don’t know where fuel is or where it will go.”
Taylor said more transparency about the availability of fuel was needed to allay Australians’ fears of ongoing shortages.
“This was a rerun of Monday’s press conference and it didn’t give us the detail we need,” he told Seven News on Wednesday night.
“[The government] needs to update us daily on what the situation is.”
-with AAP
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