Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

What is national leadership? It certainly isn't what the member opposite was just prescribing to this House. Is it the courage to confront a crisis before it becomes a catastrophe—what we're seeing right now? Is it the responsibility to act when families are breaking under pressures they did not create? Is it the willingness to see that Australians are barely holding on by their fingertips? Yes, that is leadership. Do you know what isn't leadership? It isn't saying, 'Fuel supply remains strong,' as the minister for energy, Chris Bowen, has said, while Australians are pulling into servos to find empty pumps. It isn't insisting that Australia's fuel supply is secure while families are driving from suburb to suburb just to find petrol. And it isn't telling parliament we are a long way from a fuel emergency when, for many Australians, that emergency has arrived.

Right now, across Australia, families are asking, 'Where is the leadership we were promised?' Parents are skipping meals so children don't have to. Workers are juggling two or three jobs and still falling behind. Families who once donated to food drives are now relying on them. Worried children are wondering whether their parents can keep a roof over their heads. This is not abstract. This is not theoretical. This is real. This is a lived reality that Australians are facing every single day. Across Australia, petrol is pushing well above $2.50 a litre and diesel even higher. But in some suburbs the price isn't even the worst part. Drivers are pulling into servos to find empty bowsers, taped-off pumps, handwritten notes apologising for shortages. Behaviour is shifting. People are driving less, going out, less seeing family and friends less. Confidence is tightening. The national mood is under strain.

These are people like Adam, who relies on petrol for workshop work and diesel to keep his delivery vehicles moving. If fuel rationing comes in, it won't just hurt; it will directly affect his ability to operate and serve his customers. And they are people like Carol from Glenmore Park, who told me: 'We are receiving emails from suppliers adding an extra 3½ per cent to cover their diesel. Our own diesel bill has also doubled, so it's a double whammy.' These are not outliers. These are not the exceptions. This is the lived reality of Australians right now.

This is where the pressure shifts from costs to something deeper. When the cost of fuel rises, life begins to contract. For many Australians, especially in Western Sydney, there is no alternative. Nearly half of people rely on a private vehicle to get to work. A car is not a convenience; it is a necessity. That means that when transport costs rise too far, too fast, families are pushed into what experts are calling 'transport poverty'—spending more than 10 per cent of their income just to move through daily life. When that happens, the consequences ripple outward: longer commutes, less-reliable access to work, greater risk of job instability. Opportunities narrow. Pressure builds.

So I ask again: what is national leadership? Is it watching mortgage stress climb to levels we have not seen in decades, where families are cutting back just to afford the basics, including getting to work? Is it watching families fall into food insecurity in one of the wealthiest nations on earth while the cost of simply moving through daily life keeps rising? Is it watching parents choose between groceries and petrol, rent and medical bills and putting food on the table? No. No, that is not leadership.

Leadership is about stepping into the storm we're facing now and saying, 'We will not let Australians face this alone.' Leadership is recognising that, when 3.7 million Australians, including 750,000 children, are living below the poverty line, this is not a tight month but a national emergency; leadership is understanding that, when people are cutting back not on luxuries but on movement, connection and opportunity, something deeper is going on; and leadership is acting with urgency equal to the scale of the crisis.

When we are in a crisis, we feel powerless because the government isn't showing leadership. We can choose to act. We can choose to lead. The government's just not doing it. National leadership is not measured by how loudly you speak at the dispatch box, with all your theatrics, to push away the reality of the crisis. It is measured by how firmly you stand when families are breaking, and right now Australia needs leadership that understands not just what things cost but what those costs are doing to people's lives.

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