Gladstone | The taxpayer will pay the country’s two remaining oil refineries up to $2.3 billion to stop them closing down, a move that would have cost 1250 jobs, increased the cost of petrol, and left Australia entirely reliant on imported petrol and diesel at a time of growing regional tension.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who has made Queensland the first stop on his post-budget tour, will announce the payments at Ampol’s Lytton refinery in Brisbane on Monday, saying it was a matter of economic and national security.