Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the leader for his question—sorry: the manager—I thank the member!

An honourable member: It's hard to keep up!

It really is! But, to the question directly, what I will guarantee to the Australian people is that they will be far better placed to withstand the international shocks caused by the conflict in the Middle East with this government looking out for their interests and always acting in the national interest than if those MPs on the other side were on these treasury benches. It is these people behind me, these Labor MPs, who will always fight in the national interest, and I guarantee that they will work to make sure the Australian people are well supplied with fuel.

The Treasurer has just highlighted exactly what those opposite have done: voted against important reform to make sure the Australian people can have access to the stockpiles of fuel that the Minister for Energy and Climate Change has made sure exist, while the Leader of the Opposition made sure it was in Texas—or somewhere; I don't even know anymore: it's so confusing, whatever their stockpiling plan was. And now they come in here and try to make accusations about what we are doing in the interests of the Australian people.

See this speech in context