Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This whole debate has been an absolute joke. I think the member opposite summed it up when he said he didn't know what he was talking about. What we've got is a situation where we came to government and had a shortage of fuel stocks and supplies. We've addressed that. We've fixed that. Every day, we have worked forward to get things done, and that's why we're backing our truckies to keep going. But what we've got is the coalition over there of the National Party, the Liberal Party and one neuron all fighting against keeping truckies on our road, keeping prices down and keeping people working.

The fact of the matter is that we have more supplies than we've ever had before. It's available; the distribution is the problem. They know it's the problem. It's because people are hoarding fuel, and more and more fuel needs to go out. That's where the blockage is. But what do they do? Rather than them stand up and do anything in any way, shape or form to support Australians, support workers and support the nation, they want to come in here and say, 'We need to do this desperately. It's so important,' and 'it's so important, we're going to block it. We want to put it to a Senate committee and lock it away for ages.'

Never has hypocrisy been writ so large than what we see from those opposite—

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