Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

The thing, the issue, the subject that's on everyone's lips at the moment is what is happening with fuel in this nation. People want to know where they can get cheap fuel, when they're going to get cheap fuel and what the government is actually doing to try and help this situation.

To give you a sense of the froth and bubble that we've seen from the Albanese Labor government on this issue, let's look at one announcement that they made recently. They were going to get the ACCC to deal with gouging and they were bringing in wholly new powers to get the ACCC onto it. Guess what? They made that announcement I think—let's be kind to them—about two weeks ago. Have we seen the legislation that's going to give the ACCC these new powers? Was it here at midday or at 10 o'clock, when we got back here to parliament, because, of course, it was very urgent? They were going to come down on people who were driving the prices up. There was nothing—not one bit of legislation—and I'll be very interested to see what's on the Notice Paper tomorrow, because I doubt whether the ACCC legislation is going to be on the Notice Paper.

This great urgency, this great hurry, has turned into zilch. There is nothing, nothing, nothing on the ACCC, these new powers and this new legislation. You could think to yourself: 'Okay. Well, for this government, there might have been issues with the drafting or whatever.' But it's true to form, because Chris Bowen also announced that he was going to put measures in place to stop fuel being exported out of Australia because of its sulphur content during this national fuel crisis. He made that announcement, and the member for Maranoa will remember when he made that announcement. Well, guess what? It required paperwork to make those changes. Guess how long it took the minister to do the paperwork? One day? Two days? Three days? Four days? It took five days to tick off on something which would've meant that we would've had fuel staying here in Australia instead of being exported overseas. It took five days to do the paperwork.

What utter arrogance! How out of touch is this minister? Let's be maybe a little unkind: what incompetence! It beggars belief. Now we get here to today, and where is the minister? We ask, because we wrote to him on 10 March, asking him to detail where the fuel shortages are and where his plan is to make sure that he could get fuel to where those fuel shortages are, and he should be able to do that location by location. We haven't heard boo, yet today he turned up in question time and was able to give partial answers for Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. But guess what he had to say about Tasmania? Nothing. Guess what he had to say about South Australia? Nothing. Guess what he had to say about the Northern Territory? Nothing. And my good friend from Western Australia is here. Guess what it was with Western Australia? No idea!

I don't think the minister's got any idea. That's the problem, and the Australian people are rightly concerned, because guess what this minister promised them in the lead-up to the 2022 election on over 97 occasions? The minister promised $275 off your power bill. This is the minister who's now in charge of this national fuel crisis. Not only that; guess what he did last week when the national fuel crisis was getting worse and worse and supplies were getting worse and worse? He went to Brisbane for a climate change meeting, because guess what else he's doing at the moment? He's the chief negotiator for COP. What a cop-out! Seriously, do your job, Minister.

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