Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Hansard source

I want to congratulate the government and the Prime Minister for today doing precisely what the coalition recommended, on Friday, that he do. It only took four days, after four weeks of not a lot happening—a lot of meetings, but not a lot happening. We called for the halving of the fuel excise and the reduction of the heavy-vehicle road user charge. In fact, this last week I've spoken with the Trucking Association and I've also spoken with the bus industry; both were very concerned about the costs that they were incurring. In my electorate, nine earth-moving employees have found themselves without a job this week because the employer cannot pay what he's being required to pay for fuel. Twenty-six cents a litre—yes, we suggested it; we think it makes a difference. Removing the road user charge for heavy vehicles impacts the trucks on the road. Earth moving, basically, as far as I understand, is on land; therefore, it won't incur that cost. I'm happy to be corrected on that.

But these are still very difficult times for businesses and companies. We have citrus growers who are really thinking twice about whether they will harvest their citrus, because it uses so much fuel to do so, and then to get it to market—the agents down there are saying, 'We can't afford to buy it at that price because we can't sell it afterward.' So we have fruit, we have vegetables and we have crops at risk.

And this is a time of great difficulty for Australia. Not only are we going through a cost-of-living crisis but inflation continues to rise and we expect another couple of rises, potentially, in this next month. Australians are doing it tough. Mortgages continue to increase—$28,000 on an average mortgage. How do people get through this? This is not about politics. This is about how Australians are finding life right now, without a clear message of hope in front of them.

The Albanese government, by contrast, have accused Australians of panic buying—and they were still doing it today—while they have been panic legislating. We can only say that this Export Finance and Insurance Corporation Amendment (Strategic Reserve) Bill 2026 is another piece of 'quick, let's get it out the door by tonight'. The Prime Minister said, 'Let's just get it moving.' Hardly any Labor members are speaking on it because of the urgency. This is the pattern that we are seeing time and time again from this government—lost in the waves in the ocean of despair because it really doesn't know what it's doing. We will see a shortened debate today, for sure, and the bill sent to the Senate so that we have laws passed by Good Friday.

Today's measures, we hear, will come at a $2.55 billion cost for three months. Let's not forget that the Commonwealth and, in turn, the states have gained $300 million in GST receipts since the crisis began, and it's pleasing that the states are considering what they're going to do about that. But we have meeting after meeting—

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