Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We're in this situation because of a large issue that's happening in Iran. This is where the crux of this begins. This is not an Australian problem. It's not something this government's thought up. It's because of what's happening in Iran, where we know thousands and thousands of people have been persecuted, raped, tortured, killed by a horrific regime. That has been the main cause. It's a global situation. It's not something that Australia has drummed up, Australia has made or is Australia's responsibility.

But I want to bring up a couple of numbers in particular just to have a look at a couple of things. The numbers are two and six. Six is how many refineries we had in this country prior to the election of the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison mess. Two is what we had when we came to government. We also know that 24 out of 28 coal-fired power stations closed under the Liberal-National mess—not under the Labor government but under them. So to come in here and say, 'Well, you should have this fixed; you should have this sorted' is just ridiculous.

And the irony of the member who raises this MPI—I had a look through his record. He's been here, what, 17 years? He never once talked about fuel. In fact, the only time he's ever spoken about refineries was him trying to get funding for a sugar refinery in his electorate. So this new-found interest in fuel security is nothing more than to cover up during the week to give them something to talk about because they have no policies.

Now, we know 22 different energy policies were done during the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison mess. Not one of them landed. They sit there and they talk about the $275 and say, 'Oh, Labor should apologise,' but when have any of them ever got up and said that what they did was deliberate, deceitful action against the Australian people by changing the law to hide the power price increases from before the May 2022 election? You'll never hear that, but they're always quick to have a cheap shot and a carry-on.

From talking about cheap shots and carrying on, let's talk about what's happening with fuel. Panic buying is the No. 1 issue. When service stations are telling you they are selling the equivalent of five days supply each day because people roll up with trailers and put 10 or 12 200-litre drums on the back or they're getting the big plastic fire buckets and filling them up with diesel to take away, it's almost as bad as the toilet paper crisis during COVID. This is the real reason we've got these issues happening. We've got to sit back and take a good, calm look at this, working in a methodical way as an adult and mature government, and that's what we've been doing. While those opposite are squabbling amongst themselves, we're actually sitting down and working out what's the best way forward.

We heard today time and time again—because, for those opposite, you've got to say it quite a few times, and eventually it will sink in. The minister made it very clear that he's been working with all the peak groups on what they need and what the government can do straight away to help, and their responses—the industry's responses, the National Farmers' Federation, everyone that's been involved in this—have been to say: 'Stop panic buying. There is no need for that to happen.' And this is the most important bit about this. We shouldn't be seeing this happen, but we know how this has an impact. We also know, when it comes to energy security, that those opposite went to an election just recently promising $600 billion on a nuclear scheme that was a failure.

Now, you'd think the member for Page would know more than anyone about the impacts of climate change and why we need to go to a cleaner, greener electricity and gas situation, because of the devastating impacts that his community faced with floods. In a more severe climate that is changing, the floods are more severe, harder and more frequent, resulting in bigger issues.

So what we've done is continue to work on making sure that we do get cleaner, greener energy. In fact, some of us have taken up the opportunity to get batteries to use less power. This includes those that attack the battery program and attack solar. We'll talk about the leader of One Nation. Senator Hanson herself has bought a battery on the government's program because, whenever there's a tax dollar available, you can guarantee she's on it like a seagull on a chip. It is unbelievable, the hypocrisy of those opposite, in coming in here and talking about energy and fuel supply, when, for nine years, they kept fuel overseas and did nothing. They had 22 different energy policies that delivered nothing, but they sit there and say: 'Oh, we've got a mess. Why haven't you fixed it?'

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