Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Well, I have to start by just calling out how ridiculous the situation that we find ourselves in this morning is. The coalition thought they would be clever and moved a motion to suspend standing orders to bring on urgent debate on legislation—the Treasury Laws Amendment (Doubling Penalties for ACCC Enforcement) Bill 2026—to increase the penalties under the ACCC in relation to a number of offences, particularly to address concerns around fuel price gouging. Of course, as the gamesmanship between the major parties is always in play, the government responded by agreeing to that motion but amending it to include, for urgent debate, another piece of legislation—the Fair Work Amendment (Fairer Fuel) Bill 2026—in relation to truckies. I will get to the substance of those.

It's ridiculous. But, as we are so often put in this position in this place, we have to weigh up the question of proper process over the substance of an issue. Where so often these measures are used for issues that are not genuinely urgent, I do, in this situation, agree that, at the end of the day, if you're going to have game playing by both sides, you all end up with the same mess. But Australians actually want some certainty, and they want some action to happen, when it comes to fuel prices. So, despite the poor parliamentary practice seen this morning, of the coalition and the government, I agreed to hasten the debate on action on fuel prices, because there is urgency on this issue.

It's not a hypothetical risk or a talking point for tomorrow. Australians are already paying more at the bowser, and hundreds of service stations across the country have been without at least one fuel type this week. In New South Wales alone, the federal government said on 24 March there were 164 stations without diesel and 289 without at least one fuel type. It's exactly why action matters now.

The lesson is brutally simple: when global oil markets are shocked, Australians get hit at home through fuel, freight, food and inflation. We need to understand that genuine resilience is renewable energy resilience. Real national resilience does not come from staying hooked on imported fuel and hoping the next global shock is kinder. What is occurring in the Strait of Hormuz is a brutal reminder that overseas fuel shocks flow directly into household costs, freight costs, food prices and inflation here at home. And the stakes are high. In Warringah, I'm being told, many people are opting for public transport, but public transport is at capacity. People are trying to save on fuel use, but we do not have the public transport infrastructure or the numbers of buses to cope with the demand.

In the short-term, we need transparency, enforcement and targeted relief. Stronger penalties for misleading conduct and market abuse are part of that, and direct support is better than blunt political gimmicks, which can worsen shortages. Economists quoted today warned that cutting the fuel excise would increase demand in an already strained market. It's clear we need to electrify the economy—electrify transport, expand charging infrastructure, modernise the grid and make it easier, not harder, for households and businesses to move away from oil dependence.

The first piece of legislation before us, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Doubling Penalties for ACCC Enforcement) Bill, is to ensure that there are greater consequences. A major part of laws and consequences for poor conduct is, ultimately, deterrence. The penalties must be significant to outweigh the benefits gained by price gouging. We need to build on that, which is what this piece of legislation does. It is designed—and I would of course have liked much more time to properly analyse it—to double the maximum penalties for false and misleading conduct and cartel behaviour, lifting the top penalty to $100 million per offence, while leaving in place the existing alternative penalty formulas, such as three times the value of the benefit obtained or 30 per cent of adjusted turnover, where applicable. While it's being sold politically in the context of the fuel price spike and the action of some retailers, it does sit alongside the broader package of reforms for a stronger ACCC, which I think is desperately needed to ensure Australians are properly protected.

The other piece of legislation, the Fair Work Amendment (Fairer Fuel) Bill, proposes to enable the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations to authorise a reduction of the minimum six-month consultation period required before the commission can make road transport contractual chain orders, in circumstances where there are imminent and significant negative impacts on the road transport industry nationally and where it's in the public interest to reduce this timeframe. In the context of what is currently occurring in our transport sector, with fuel prices spiking, I accept that there is a need for this to be acted upon urgently, but I ask the major parties: please behave better and allow us proper scrutiny of legislation.

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