Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I recognise that households, businesses and farmers are facing fuel uncertainty right now, and I know that this is something that is having rippling affects across Australia. The thing that I also know is that the people of Australia recognise that it was not the Australian government that organised the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and that it's not because of the Australian government decisions or actions. What we are seeing right now is the largest disruption to global energy supply since the 1970s. This is a crisis that we are currently living through which has been triggered by a war, a war that has blocked the channel through which 20 per cent of the world's oil passes.

Australians deserve to know that this government is a government that is listening and acting, and we are continuing to act immediately and decisively. We're doing this because we recognise that farmers, truckies, regional families and those people in cities as well are feeling what is happening at the fuel pumps right now. Interestingly, the motion that is before us calls for actions that we have actually already taking. Minimum stockholding obligations—we've implemented them. The minimum stockholding obligation covers 98 per cent of all diesel and 100 per cent of petrol and jet fuel in Australia, and we strengthened the diesel requirements further in 2024. On the question of transparent reporting, we publish the MSO stock data every Saturday. When the crisis hit, we moved fast. We released 762 million litres from the strategic reserve. We amended the fuel quality standards to unlock a further 100 million litres of fuel supply per month. We have also convened the National Oil Supplies Emergency Committee six times since 1 March. And this weekend the Prime Minister announced that the government will underwrite additional fuel shipments directly, carrying the financial risk so that suppliers can secure cargoes that otherwise could not be afforded. This is legislation that will be introduced into the House today. Independent energy analysts have called this the right move.

We are making changes to protect Australia's security. But those opposite deserve a moment because they brought this motion. Four refineries closed under the coalition. Two of them closed while the current opposition leader was the energy minister. When BP closed the Kwinana refinery, the only refinery in Western Australia, he said:

Closure of the refinery will not negatively impact Australia's fuel supplies.

When ExxonMobil closed Altona, he said it again. He was wrong. And, rather than build storage here, the coalition spent $100 million storing oil—less than two days of Australia's supply—in Texas, 14,000 km away on an entirely different continent and in a different hemisphere.

The people of Australia are not watching this debate to see who scores points. They're watching because they are worried, because they are filling up the tank and watching the number climb, and because fuel prices flow through to groceries, to freight and to everything on the shelf. The pressure is real, and that's why we've empowered the ACCC with strengthened penalties to go after price gouging. It is why we targeted relief specifically at regional areas, where supply chains are the longest. It's why this government has delivered tax cuts for all 14 million Australian taxpayers, with the average worker to be around $43 a week better off from 1 July.

This motion condemns the government for failing to act. The facts say otherwise. We implemented the obligations that they only promised. We kept open refineries that they let close. We store fuel here, not in Texas. But the most important thing that I can say is not about them; it's about the families in our electorates, the farmers in regional WA and the truckies keeping this country moving. Australia needs a government that's focused on them and not on fighting the opposition. That's what we're doing. We're fighting for the good people of Australia.

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