Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister Assisting for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this motion, and I do so at a time when Australia's fuel security is not just under pressure but dangerously exposed. Our nation is a nation that runs on diesel—the mining sector, the agriculture sector, the transport sector. I think everyone in this place can agree on that—in fact, there is no argument. But politics is the art of knowing what comes next. The problem we have with the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, and the Prime Minister as well, is not that they don't know what comes next; it's that they don't know what just happened. That's the problem. I had the privilege of sitting in this place during one of the most challenging times in our nation's history, COVID—as did you, Deputy Speaker Buchholz. I know, from being around tables where senior decision-makers were making decisions during that crisis, that they weren't focused on what was happening 'just now'; they were focused on what was about to happen and what was going to happen after that.

You see, that is the point. We have a minister for climate change and energy who, for a couple of weeks, said: 'Crisis? What crisis? There's no crisis—nothing to see here.' I don't think he just said that in question time. From what we can see now, that was informing his decisions day by day. So, at the time when critical decisions had to be made to get in front of the curve—not flatten the curve but get in front of the curve—he was sitting down, presumably with his head in the sand, going: 'No problem. It'll all go away.'

Now, the member for Swan just made an interesting contribution. I think she used the word 'crisis' about a dozen times. Do you know what? Those opposite—and particularly the minister—have been mugged by reality. He's been mugged by the reality that it actually is a crisis.

You know when you pull up to a petrol station and the bowser's on empty? I had this experience myself. This was about four weeks ago. I was coming back to Canberra; I was travelling from Mount Gambier to Adelaide. I had about 100 kilometres of fuel, and I thought, 'Oh, just pull into Naracoorte and fill up.' Well, guess what? There was no fuel in Naracoorte. I could barely believe it. I posted a photograph about that, and, lo and behold, 200-odd thousand people looked at that photograph. I made it, just, to Keith, a hundred kilometres down the road. And never ever in my life have I had that experience. Plenty of times I've had the experience where I've thought, 'Look, Tony, you've overcooked it; you won't make it to the next town,' but I've never had to think at the same time, 'Gee, I hope that town has fuel.' Unbelievable!

The reality is: those opposite have now been mugged by reality. If we're talking about what comes next, can I say to those opposite: supply is one problem—it's the pre-eminent and first priority, of course, because, without supply, as I said, a nation that runs on diesel grinds to a halt—but let's talk about price right now. I spent Saturday morning with a business operator who, in fact, I sat next to in year 8, all the way back when. He runs South West Freight, a small to medium trucking enterprise. You're familiar with this industry, Mr Deputy Speaker Buchholz. His fuel bill has gone from $5 million a year to $10 million a year. He's looking at trucks parked up in his yard. I then, over the course of the weekend, had the great opportunity to meet up with some dairy farmers in my electorate. A heap of them came to a particular dairy because they knew I was going to catch up with one farmer, and one dairy farmer said, 'Tony, we run 11 diesel engines.' This is a dairy farm that's not on the grid—not because they want to be green; they're just simply not on the grid. They have to rely on diesel generation for the electricity to run their pumps, their irrigation systems and, indeed, the dairy. These aren't people that can pass these prices on.

So, in effect, what we have is that those opposite—who have spent the large share of the last decade demonising fossil fuels and the people that drill for them, refine them and deliver them to our economy—right now are asking for forgiveness and praying that the very people they've demonised over the course of the last decade can get them out of this very, very hot water. To those opposite: Accept our proposal to reduce fuel taxes in this country. Give Australians some relief. And do it today.

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