Garth Hamilton (Groom, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Energy Security and Affordability) Share this | Hansard source

Sadly, my office has received multiple reports of fuel supply shortages throughout our area. Two petrol stations on Taylor Street are no longer serving. In Wyreema it's capped at 60 litres per customer. I just heard Chris Smith on the radio saying that Dalby is out of diesel. I have to confirm that, of course, but this is a real concern for us. We've got the sorghum harvest just around the corner, about to get started. People are trying to secure the fuel they'll need to do that, to recover their costs and, hopefully, make a little bit more. It's a huge issue in my electorate.

My electorate is one of the electorates, one of the areas, that the minister for energy couldn't identify today, in question time, when he was asked where the fuel supply shortages are. He couldn't identify it. We heard today that the minister intends to take a very hands-off approach to dealing with this issue. He's not going to do anything more. He's saying that this is just panic buying—and I join with the concerns around panic buying—but why is the panic buying happening? It's because people are seeing closed petrol stations. They're driving past signs that say it's capped at 60 litres. They're seeing it. That's why the panic buying is happening. And we saw the minister today standing there, saying, 'Tell me what to do. What do I do?'

There's lots that the minister can do. The first thing he can do is look back to 2021, when we had the AdBlue crisis. When we were in government, we saw there was a shortage of AdBlue playing out in certain parts of Australia. We worked with the ACCC to relax some of the provisions of the Competition and Consumer Act to make sure we could work together, across Australia, to get that AdBlue where it was needed so that our farmers and our truckers had what they needed to keep Australia moving. We did that, and Labor supported it. Labor said it was a sensible option to take. But now, when Labor find themselves with the weight of government on their own shoulders and a very similar problem in front of them, with the blueprint laid out for how to respond to a crisis just like this, what do they do? They freeze. They freeze—hands off—and blame Australians for panic buying, when there is so much that this minister can do to address the concerns in my local area.

It's long been my view that this minister is more focused on trying to be the president of COP than he is on delivering as the energy minister for Australia, getting on the ground and understanding the issues that we have to deal with, particularly in regional Australia. Energy is the economy, and this economy runs on diesel. That's the truth of Australia's set-up. The longer this goes on, the more concern there will be in communities like mine, like many of my colleagues' and, I'm sure—as we heard today—even in Western Sydney, where there are fuel shortages, right next to the seat of the minister for energy. I suggest he goes out and puts his feet on the ground and sees what's happening in his own patch.

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