Shadow Minister for Communications and Digital Safety – Transcript – Breakfast with Stephen Cenatiempo, 2CC, 28 April 2026
Senator the Hon Sarah Henderson
Shadow Minister for Communications and Digital Safety
Transcript
Breakfast with Stephen Cenatiempo, 2CC, 28 April 2026
Fuel storage announcement, regional communications, Port Arthur
Stephen Cenatiempo: Time to talk federal politics with the Shadow Minister for Communications, Senator Sarah Henderson. Sarah, good morning,
Senator Henderson: Stephen, good morning to you.
Stephen Cenatiempo: First thing to talk about this morning, Angus Taylor, the opposition leader, has launched a national security policy proposing an $800 million investment to double our physical fuel reserves. That’s still not enough, though, is it? That doesn’t even get us anywhere near the 90 days?
Senator Henderson: Well, this is a major step forward, an announcement by Angus will be made later today. At the moment, Stephen, Australia is dangerously exposed at the end of a very long global supply chain, and our commitment of $800 million will more than double minimum stock holding levels to 60 days for critical fuels, and that will unlock over 1 billion litres of new storage capacity, with a really big focus on diesel. And that’s where the real pressure is at the moment. This is about resilience. This is about making sure Australia can stand on its own two feet. And when we look at the way the government has managed this fuel crisis to date, running around the world, cap in hand to other countries without having solutions in this country, I think this is a very, very significant step forward.
Stephen Cenatiempo: It’s one of the things that look I like about this is incentivising the construction of new refineries. We know that our refining capacity is diminished over the last two decades, but Labor is saying that the policy is unfunded, and I guess that’s what they’re going to say about any policy that comes out this far out from election, but suggesting it could push fuel prices up at the bowser, how does more supply put the price up?
Senator Henderson: Look, Stephen, can I just add one thing to this also, and this is really important. Last week, we made an announcement to unlock Australia’s oil and gas reserves. We are determined to do that. We have got precious resources in the ground, and that plan will also assist in bringing Australia within the range of a 90 day international stock holding ambition. But what we are not going to do is sit on our hands. We are not going to drive our nation backwards. We are not going to shut down oil and gas and coal, the very things that have made our country so strong, and of course, that is the government’s priority. That’s their mission, their reckless renewables-only policies are killing our country. And under Angus Taylor and the Coalition, we are determined to turn that around, to reinstate the prosperity of our nation. Because of course, we are focused on restoring our way of life and making sure that Australia’s cost of living also bounces back under our range of policies.
Stephen Cenatiempo: Sarah, for the last 25 years, we’ve been fed a steady diet of renewables is the only answer, and I guess many of us probably believed it for a while. Do you get the sense that Australians are now waking up to the folly of this renewables only policy.
Senator Henderson: I really do. Australians are really suffering under Labor’s policies. Electricity has gone up 38%, gas has gone up 42%, these policies are a joke, and as part of what we will do, and the announcement that we will be making is that we will also be abolishing the safeguard mechanism. So that’s going to provide a real financial boost for our oil refineries as well. If we start today, delivering the additional fuel security that we need is achievable. But I can tell you what we’re not doing. We are getting rid of the net zero rubbish which is driving our country backwards. We know of course there is a role for renewables, we don’t have a problem with that, but we need baseload power – we need oil and we need gas and we need coal, and we are determined to dig and drill and pay down the debt.
Stephen Cenatiempo: Sarah, I want to talk about a couple of other issues, and something in your portfolio is communications, is Black Spot funding. Now, one of my biggest criticisms of the NBN when it was first rolled out was that we should be spending that money the world is moving to mobile technology. We have a very large continent where there are so many black spots it’s not funny, particularly in regional areas. And not only regional areas, there’s parts of Canberra where you can’t make a phone call. You’ve accused the Government of abandoning the regions on black spot funding?
Senator Henderson: Well absolutely, because this life changing funding program – which we rolled out and delivered nearly 1300 base stations – has been cut by the Labor Government. And they’re now putting all their eggs in one basket. They’re saying to the telcos that you can deliver universal mobile outdoor coverage through satellite technology, which has not even been rolled out. And yet the Government has abandoned the field on fixing black spots across this country. Satellite will play an increasingly important role in the years to come, but we need a stronger terrestrial mobile network, and it looks very much like the government has abandoned the field by cutting this vital program.
The other really important part of our focus is that we are advocating for mobile roaming, mandatory mobile roaming. It is offensive in this country that say – if you are an Optus customer that you can go into a part of Australia where only Telstra has connectivity – and not access that signal. Because if you are a visitor in Australia, you can access mobile roaming. You can roam onto the nearest signal. If you are an Australian, you cannot do that. That is deeply offensive. And so, we are very focused on what we need to do to give equity in the regions to support Australians with their mobile connectivity wherever they live. And as part of that, we are raising big concerns about the funding cliff for the Regional Tech Hub, which is a relatively small program – $6 million over three years – which supports the regions and regional families connect to the internet, connect to phones and other technology. It’s run by the National Farmers Federation. For months, the Government has been mucking around the Regional Tech Hub. They don’t know whether they’re going to get any more funding from the 30th of June, and that is just simply not good enough.
Stephen Cenatiempo: Particularly given the protestations of the Minister for regional development, who talks a big game on this kind of stuff. But when the money, when the rubber hits the road, not so much. Now I want to talk about the 30th anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre. Sarah, you were a journalist at the time with the ABC and interviewed one of the survivors. Just want to play a little bit about that and I want to talk to you about your recollections of this, because this interview was incredibly powerful. This was with one of the survivors.
Audio of Lynne Beavis: I saw a young man sitting there, just sitting there with blood all over his hair and his face, holding his girlfriend, wife, I don’t know, his hand, and she was very dead. And I just looked at him and I said, I’m so sorry. I can’t help you.
Stephen Cenatiempo: That was Lynne Beavis. I can only imagine what it was, well, I mean, we can’t imagine what it was like for her, but I can only imagine what it was like for you as the journo to have to sit through that.
Senator Henderson: Well, Stephen the Port Arthur massacre remains one of the darkest days in our history. 35 innocent people were killed; many more were injured. It’s a very, very black day in our nation’s history. And the magnificent Lynne Beavis, a young nurse, was hiding behind a wall when those shots rang out, and would you believe she ran to the Broad Arrow cafe. She knew people had been shot there. She didn’t know how many. 22 people in total were shot, 12 fatally. And she decided to run to the cafe to help them. She told me stories at the time that I can’t repeat because of the horror of what she confronted. She said it was like going into a war zone.
And we, in fact, returned to Port Arthur 10 years ago, Lynne and I, and that was the story filmed by the ABC. And it was very, very tough. But she was one of many heroes, and she spoke about what she went through in the most incredible way. It was the first time the nation really learnt what had happened a couple of days after that horrific mass murder. And of course, in the aftermath of Port Arthur, John Howard was so magnificent, showing such incredible national leadership when he implemented the gun law reforms. I think that has helped save countless lives since that time.
Stephen Cenatiempo: No two ways about that, and I’ve always argued that we should be looking at our gun laws on a fairly regular basis, and unfortunately, they become a bit of a scapegoat for things or have become a scapegoat for things in recent times. But Sarah, always great to talk to you. We’ll catch up again in a fortnight.
Senator Henderson: Thank you so much, Stephen. Have a great day.
Stephen Cenatiempo: You too. Senator Sarah Henderson, the Shadow Minister for Communications.