Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will announce low-cost loans for businesses affected by the fuel supply crisis in a National Press Club address on Thursday.

The loans will be distributed as part of the government’s existing $1billion 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.’

It comes after the government announced a series of relief measures for businesses during the fuel crisis, including ATO assistance for those struggling to meet tax obligations.

Small businesses will get easier and faster access to credit by extending the small business responsible lending obligation exemption for a further 10 years.

The finance sector will also implement temporary payment deferrals, loan restructuring, and emergency credit limit increases.

Albanese is also expected to detail Australia’s stance on the Middle East conflict and fuel security measures, while also emphasising economic sovereignty and securing global supply chains.

‘Providing this stability and security amidst uncertainty does not mean standing still while the world changes around us. It means anticipating and creating change, true to Australian values and in Australia’s interests,’ he will say in his National Press Club address.

‘If people feel like the economy is not working for them, if they’re putting in the effort but not seeing the reward, if planning for the future feels like a luxury, then government cannot provide stability, just by keeping things as they are.

‘There is not security in maintaining a status quo that doesn’t work for people.’

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.

The Prime Minister 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,” Albanese will say.

‘The scale of the challenge facing us, and the breadth of opportunities ahead of us, demand that ambition and that urgency.’