Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the Treasury Laws Amendment (Doubling Penalties for ACCC Enforcement) Bill 2026 and the Fair Work Amendment (Fairer Fuel) Bill 2026. These legislative amendments will allow the minister to streamline emergency applications in relation to a road transport contractual chain if it is viewed to be in the national interest and will have impacts on the road transport industry. Truckers, who perform a crucial role in our supply chain economy, should not have to pay exorbitant sums to be able to do their basic job.

We know that the Middle East has drastically changed the provision of fuel in this country and around the world, and hikes in petrol prices are to be expected, but it was on the very day that the conflict started in Iran that petrol retailers began to increase their prices, and this is wrong. The situation had not changed in Australia. Australia's fuel supply remains secure. International fuel prices and standards can certainly influence domestic prices, but these ordinarily bear on Australia's domestic prices two weeks after the fact, not on the very day or the day after. Petrol companies are making hay in the conflict in the Middle East and exploiting their customers, Australians. Constituents in my electorate of Boothby are now having to pay more at the pump because of this anticompetitive behaviour. Currently we're paying around $2.38, an increase of 20c, and we know that in the regions it is much, much higher.

Understandably, my constituents feel there is no end in sight, as prices rise steadily and interminably and we see what is happening overseas. I, as has the Treasurer, have written to the Chair of the ACCC to ensure that they are properly monitoring this behaviour. The Albanese Labor government is on the side of hardworking Australians who should not have to pay inflated prices to get to their job in order to make ends meet. The Albanese Labor government is working to ensure that all Australians will be able to fill up their tank at market-standard prices. Indeed the Albanese Labor government is introducing this legislation to double penalties for price manipulation at the bowser. We have convened National Cabinet so that federal, state and territory governments are able to co-ordinate a comprehensive and substantive response to the fuel crisis. We've appointed a national Fuel Supply Taskforce coordinator, who will co-ordinate the government's and the state and territory governments' responses to fuel security and supply chain resilience, and engage with overseas partners to ensure that we can keep supply coming.

Australia has begun to release 20 per cent of its fuel reserves, reinforcing our fuel-secure status, and luckily those reserves are actually onshore in Australia, not in Texas, where those opposite thought they should be. We've also relaxed petrol and diesel standards in order to increase our fuel supply. This legislation to double penalties for petrol companies for price gouging to $100 million per offence is about giving Australia a fair go.

While those opposite play political games, stunts, by calling on this legislation to be urgently passed—'very urgent' we heard from the last speaker—those in the other place on their side are referring it to a committee. Then, when we put it to a vote here, they voted against it anyway. Those opposite are playing very badly strategically planned stunts while this government has the backs of all Australians, and I'd call on those opposite to stop the stunts and stop the games. This is urgent. We need to get it through. You need to vote for it. You need to tell those in the other place that they need to vote for it as well. This is an urgent thing, and we really need all of us. We're elected to look after Australians. We all need to do what is right for our constituents and get this legislation through.

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