E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
SUNRISE
MONDAY, 9 March 2026
TOPICS: Iranian women’s football team; Temporary protection visas; Fuel security; Climate change policy
NATALIE BARR: Let’s bring in Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek and One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce. Good morning. Tanya, will the government step in if these women want to stay?
TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: Well, a couple of things to say, Nat. The first is that for years now we have been saying that the brave women and girls of Iran who have been out on the streets protesting, asking for the most basic rights, deserve our support and respect. Men and women out there protesting against an authoritarian autocratic government that has murdered tens of thousands of its own citizens. They are so brave, the people who are standing up in Iran. As for the soccer team here, they have played with extraordinary courage and dignity. It was beautiful to see the Matildas swapping jerseys with the Lionesses the other night. But we don't comment on individual cases like this, and we don't speculate about -
BARR: We seem to have obviously lost Tanya's link. We'll see if we can get back to it. But Barnaby, do you offer, do you support offering them asylum?
BARNABY JOYCE: I think it's something that we have to go through the details with. Obviously, it's a shame. We used to have a thing called temporary protection visas and the Labor government, in their wisdom, got rid of them back in 2023. That would be, that would be ideal candidates for temporary protection visas and the government should look at quickly bringing back legislation into the House for temporary protection visas, reinstalling them. And I think you have some great candidates here for precisely that. The issue, of course, becomes, one of, you got to have compassion, but you've got to also work out with what's happening in Iran. How many refugees are you going to get from there pretty soon? I'd say the way that's going, an awful lot. And so, we have to also look at precedent on this one as well.
BARR: Is this a bit of a different case, though, Barnaby? You've got them in your country, you've got allegations that they're holding up the international sign for help. The opposition, I mean, they're right here and, you know, you've got people saying if they go back they could be harmed.
JOYCE: I'm not saying, I'm not saying that we shouldn't do something. I'm saying we are. I'm saying that what would be the ideal mechanism to do something would be the temporary protection visas which were removed in 2023. You could bring them back into the House tomorrow and I bet you by lunchtime they'll be through.
BARR: Tanya, what do you think about that?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, it's a very delicate situation and I don't want to speculate about this case. And as for Barnaby's suggestion of temporary protection visas, like if people are refugees and they come to Australia and they settle, we want them to be on a pathway to citizenship. We want them to join their story to our story permanently. That's what my parents did when they came to Australia as refugees after the Second World War. They put down roots here. They raised children to be good Australian citizens. There's a benefit in people permanently settling and joining their story to ours. That's what's made our multicultural nation so strong.
BARR: Okay, let's move on. We're being warned about inflation, that it could climb to a three year high as oil prices surge, obviously right around the world. It comes amid concerns that food prices will also hike as farmers face fuel shortages. Tanya, obviously not welcome news for Aussies.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: No. We absolutely need to keep an eye on inflation and there's the-- there's two things happening in the economy. There's likely inflation pressure. There's also a likely slowing in the global economy when it comes to growth. We need to be watching both of those things. But when it comes to fuel Nat, we have been completely responsible here. We have had the biggest fuel stocks that we've had any time in 15 years. We've still got three billion litres of diesel. We've got one and a half billion litres of petrol. We've brought our emergency fuel stocks onto Australian soil. When Angus Taylor was the Energy Minister they were holding Australian emergency fuel stocks in Texas. There were six refineries in Australia when the Coalition was in government, four of them closed under the Coalition government we acted to keep the final two open here. There are still ships on the way. There are still ships on the way. So, the last thing we want to see is panic buying. We've got fuel stocks. There are more ships on the way. We've taken responsible action to have emergency fuel stocks here. We've kept the refineries open. The last thing we want to see is panic buying.
BARR: Ok, Barnaby, you're smiling.
JOYCE: Because it's ridiculous what's been said.
BARR: Which bit?
JOYCE: Well, what we have is in towns, such as in my area, Mungindi, Walcha, will run out of fuel. Mungindi that Trans West is finding it nearly impossible to get fuel. United Petroleum said they can't get access to it. Even in Albury where I was they don't have fuel in the middle of the week. We don't worry about panic buying. There is no fuel for the, for the retailers, for the, to get from the wholesalers of the petrol. And the reason for this is we have things which the Labor Party supported. The safeguard mechanism, because see the refineries put out too much carbon dioxide. And because they put out too much carbon dioxide they all agreed to get rid of the refineries.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: But you closed the refineries.
JOYCE: [inaudible] they get rid of the refineries.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: They've all been closed under you. We've kept them open.
JOYCE: Get rid of the refineries and you support it, and this is part of your carbon policy.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Four of them closed under you.
JOYCE: This is part of your climate policy. You're enjoying climate policy. This is what you get. And what we're going to have is a massive problem. A massive problem.
BARR: 2021 Kwinana, WA closed under Morrison. 2021 Altona, Victoria closed under Morrison. They've closed under you too. It's kind of about 50/50. So, it's not all their fault.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Only under them.
JOYCE: Yeah. Okay.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: We kept them open. The two that are open are open because we kept them open.
BARR: So Barnaby, you've got a war on fuel stocks back on Australian soil.
JOYCE: [inaudible]
BARR: Hang on, hang on, Tanya. You've got a war on Barnaby. How would you change the fuel situation?
JOYCE: Well, the first thing is you have to get rid of your climate policy. So, you have to get rid of the climate change department. You have to go back to, to the practicalities of having policy that supports Australia, not tries to change the weather which you actually can't do from Australia.
BARR: And how would that get us more fuel in a war situation?
JOYCE: Then the issue what we have. We don't have all the days of supply that Minister Bowen had because we have ships on the water. We can't get the fuel from ships--
BARR: --the biggest show that we have not had more than about 30, 35 days of fuel in the last 10 years. So, what did you do when you were in government? Because it was the same by the sound of it.
JOYCE: We did the wrong thing. I'll tell you right now as part of the debate.
BARR: Okay.
JOYCE: I never supported what's happened because the International Energy Agency wants you to have 90 days.
BARR: Yeah.
JOYCE: They're the ones. You have 25 last week. You've got a lot less now. In some areas of Australia you do not have fuel. Okay. That is the reality.
BARR: So all governments have done the wrong thing in the last 10 to 15 years.
JOYCE: Lets- the way to change it right now is to get rid of the climate change department--
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: And Barnaby was never in a position to say anything about it then--
JOYCE: --your climate change policies and get more pragmatic and you have to have the capacity. Tanya's right, storing it in the United States is a very stupid place to store it. But telling people you've got 34 days when you actually don't, is not telling the truth.
PLIBERSEK: It was your government.
JOYCE: We don’t have 34 days.
BARR: Okay. Sounds like what everyone's been doing for more than a decade. Last word, Tanya.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Look, I just think Barnaby's obsessed with climate change policy--
JOYCE: [inaudible]
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: --and he thinks that the war in Iran is somehow linked to climate change policy.
JOYCE: No no, I don’t--
MINSITER PLIBERSEK: It's just madness.
JOYCE: The fuel crisis is linked to your climate change policy because you got rid of your refineries.
BARR: Well, you did.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: You closed the refineries.
JOYCE: [inaudible] It was a bad decision. But they still believe, they still believe in the policy. I want to get rid of the policy. They still believe in the policy that got rid of them.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: But you didn't have a climate change policy. The refineries closed under your government policy without a climate change.
JOYCE: Can you still support the policy to get rid of the refineries? You still support it.
BARR: Well, they're gone.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: No, we've kept them open Barnaby. We’ve kept them open, the remaining two--
JOYCE: No, no. Do you support the safeguard mechanism or not? Does the Labor Party want to pull down the safeguard mechanism?
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: I support fuel security for Australia [inaudible].
BARR: Well, no one's had the safeguard. No one's had 90 days in 15 years.
JOYCE: Tanya, do you support the safeguard mechanism or not?
BARR: Okay, look, we've got to wrap it up. Thank you very much. We'll try and explain it next week.
MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Thanks Nat.
BARR: See you. Bye.
Ends
