Matt Gregg (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

While I don't agree with every word the member for Nicholls used, I appreciate that he is taking this issue seriously. That's in stark contrast to the mover of this motion, who spent a whole lot of minutes talking on a range of subjects, effectively providing us with his stump speech once again, but not touching on the very real issue and very serious issue of fuel supply.

Australians are following events in the Middle East closely, and they are very much seeing and feeling the consequences when they go to the pump. The longer the conflict in the Middle East goes, I fear the more significant the impact will be on the global economy and on people in all of our electorates. Ensuring our farmers, our regional communities and the services—and, indeed, all the goods—all Australians rely on can continue to be accessed requires us to ensure that all levels of the supply chain have access to the fuel they need.

Across the board, the Albanese government has been working through and planning for the impacts of this crisis and protecting Australians from the worst of this global challenge. We have empowered the ACCC to protect motorists from unfair price rises, we have boosted fuel supply by releasing 20 per cent of the baseline minimum stockholding obligation for petrol and diesel, and we're acting to get more fuels into the Australian market by temporarily amending the fuel standards.

Just today, only a short time ago, Minister Bowen informed the House that the Albanese government had temporarily made further changes to the diesel standards, which will help suppliers bring more fuel into the country and provide domestic market access to our farmers, to the truckers and to regional communities. These are incredibly important updates. Australian refineries will now have more flexibility to make diesel and widen the markets from which we can source diesel, including the United States, Canada and Europe, which will allow diesel with lower flashpoints. This will give companies more flexibility and more options to adjust supply chains to manage disruption from the Middle East.

This builds on the range of work this government has been doing to shore up Australia's fuel supply. We're working closely with industry, the states and the territories to ensure that this fuel gets to where it's needed, particularly in regional communities, because we do appreciate the issues raised by the member for Nicholls and the importance of regional communities having access to diesel, particularly as cropping is going on.

Following a meeting of National Cabinet, the Commonwealth has appointed Anthea Harris as Fuel Supply Taskforce Coordinator to support coordination across governments and sectors. If you look at the national fuel emergency response plan, the staged, methodical, well-planned, well-established approach to doing these things, coordinating and leading market-led solutions are the first and second stages. The idea of chucking rumours in about immediate rationing and things like that does not assist an anxious market. It makes it worse. It's rank opportunism and it is almost bordering on a self-fulfilling prophecy, trying to create the very anxiety that causes this supply-demand imbalance that we're seeing around the country.

We know full well that there is no less fuel in Australia than there was a few weeks ago and that there is enough fuel in Australia to meet Australia's needs. But, understandably, at these times people are feeling anxious. They drive past the service station and they see how high the prices are. They know the fuel is available, so they utilise that moment. It's perfectly understandable. I have relatives on farms in the member for Monash's seat. I've got relatives who are tradies and of course I understand where that anxiety comes from. It's completely understandable and I don't judge it, but it isn't assisted by people running around saying, 'Oh! Panic, panic, panic! We're about to have rationing,' and things like that, or even hinting at it.

The only relevant question they should be asking in a national situation like this is: what can we do to help? And we've heard none of that from the opposition. We've had rank political opportunism that serves no-one but themselves. And people will not forget. We will not forget.

This is the time for us to come together and provide fact based information to the hardworking people in our electorates to make sure that we can carry on through this challenge as unscathed as possible. We're not just going to stoke some ridiculous debate devoid of any facts simply to have a little bit of a political edge for one day in question time or to try and treat this as a Facebook video studio so they can just get a little bit of the attention they might be seeking or get a few more followers. This is not the time for that. It's not an election year. There is no need to play these petty little politics.

This is a time for us to come together as mature adults and as leaders to try and assist our communities to get through this as best as possible. It's working with states and territories in a productive way to make sure that the distribution of fuel can be done as effectively and responsibly as possible. It requires a mature group of people working maturely to actually address the challenges that we face now.

We can't control what is happening in the Middle East. There have been incredibly disturbing developments there. We hope that those matters are resolved as quickly as possible, but the Albanese government is doing its job, and so should you.

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