Rowan Holzberger (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As a new member of this place, there's still so much that I have to learn. One thing I've learned over the last few days is that, when members of the opposition are talking from the dispatch box, they don't generally look around the room. They like looking in that direction, which I guess is so that they get themselves on camera, because, actually, all they're really doing is making a social media video. They're not really contributing to the debate that's taking place in this parliament—not all of them, of course. I think that what we're seeing here is a complete abrogation of their responsibility to take part seriously in this debate.

So, to that end, I would implore them to support this legislation, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Doubling Penalties for ACCC Enforcement) Bill 2026 and the Fair Work Amendment (Fairer Fuel) Bill 2026. The member for Cook talked about the urgency of all of this, yet they're not prepared to act urgently. In fact, I remembered during those crises of the term 'to be alert but not alarmed', whereas the opposition actually seem to have it the other way around. They're being alarmed but not alert, otherwise they wouldn't be coming in here asking ridiculous questions of the government such as if they will co-ordinate a national response after they've already had a National Cabinet meeting. They would actually be on top of what's going on rather than trying to score political points.

I have got to say, in my short 53 years on this Earth, there has really only been one national crisis that I have lived through, which was COVID. Do you know what the Labor Party did on that? They worked with the government at the time in the nation's best interest. To give a little bit of free political advice to the opposition, do you know what happened to the Labor Party after we worked with the then government? We won an election because actually the smart thing to do politically is to put differences aside and act in the national interest. You know what Australians hate most of all? They hate division in this place at a moment of national crisis. I realise this is free advice, which is unsolicited, but you're going to pay. You're going to pay for it out there in the electorate for the stance that you're taking. Mark my words. It is exactly the sort of behaviour that has seen your party become a total irrelevance. It really gets to the point where it's not worth talking so much about what this opposition is doing, because they have now got themselves into such a position that, out there in the community, they aren't even the real opposition. Please take heed of that advice and act in the national interest. Act like the sort of responsible adults that the people in our community expect us all to act like. It will pay political dividends as well as national dividends.

This legislation is exactly designed for the moment. These two bills are designed to do two things. As the member for Cook indicated earlier—and Deputy Speaker Buchholz yourself, who was heavily involved in trucking, like my neighbour. I know firsthand, from working in construction and running a construction business, how important those fuel costs are and how important it is that we get those deliveries on time. So these pieces of legislation deal with that. They give certainty to truckies that they're going to be able to negotiate a fair deal that's going to be able to keep their trucks moving and get those materials delivered to site or the goods delivered to supermarkets. The other thing it does as well is it gives powers to the government and the ACCC to actually properly prosecute companies that are profiteering out of this. We know—as if the member for Cook was telling us something we don't know!—what is going on out there, but the difference between us and the opposition is that we're acting on it, and they're point scoring. We're out there taking effective measures; they're out there collecting data and asking for people's emails. We're out there acting in the national interest, and they're out there acting in what they think is their very narrow political interest.

I would appeal to them to support this legislation. This needs to happen quickly. It needs to happen urgently, and all of the urgency that the other side have been talking about needs to be more than words. They need to stop making social media videos. They need to start acting in the national interest, and the best thing they could do would be start by supporting these bills.

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