Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We, the Albanese government, are looking at every practical measure that we can to shield Australians from the very worst of this global uncertainty. And, globally, it is a crisis. What we're seeing at home is the need to really manage not just the supply of fuel that comes to our shores, but also the distribution, so that it fairly gets around our country. National Cabinet is convening again today, to further coordinate activity and make sure that we have national consistency.

We know Australians are following events in the Middle East, and we also know that they are seeing and feeling the consequences here at home. In my own electorate—a peri-urban electorate, where you can't easily switch to public transport for every purpose—we are really feeling the effects of an uneven distribution of fuel, and certainly, in the last week or two, that has had its impacts. In my area, where we have agriculture, many construction workers and many, many tradies, we need to see steady diesel, as well as petrol. That, of course, is the role that, together, at a federal and state level, working with the industry, we will be aiming to achieve.

I think it's obvious to all of us that, the longer this goes on, the more significant the impact will be. The longer the Middle East war goes on, the harder it will get for us. And so our job, as a government, is not just to think about now, and the immediate needs, but also to think forward and to make sure that our farmers, and communities like mine, our more regional communities, can all get the fuel that they need.

I want to particularly talk about one part of my community, and that's the Hawkesbury turf growers. A major concern for them is ensuring that their businesses, which use diesel in every part of the business—on the tractors, on the mowers, on the pumps, on the harvesters, on the trucks—have access to a supply. I want to ensure that when we talk about distributing diesel across the country, we don't forget the peri-urban areas, which are so dependent on it. Like everyone, they are increasing prices and resorting to temporary levies for their clients to cover it, but it's a big issue for jobs that are some way off but have already been quoted before this fuel price rise and availability hit.

There are also cases of turf growers getting yelled at when they go to petrol stations with their regular vehicles, their regular trucks and containers to get their diesel fuel. I want to encourage people to think about how it's not just day-to-day drivers, mums and dads driving kids around; we've got turf growers, agricultural people, the equine sector who all have a pattern of accessing their fuel. They are doing what they always do at the petrol station. They deserve respect for that and they deserve to be able to access the normal supplies that they normally would.

As the member for Macquarie, my job is to raise these issues with the government, and that's what I've been doing. I'm very pleased to see the things that we've done to support consumers. We have passed new laws to double the penalties for petrol companies that are taking unfair advantage of this situation. We have the new National Fuel Supply Taskforce. Its coordinator, Anthea Harris, has been working to ensure that all the different bits of the system are talking together. It's absolutely crucial that that happens. We have released 20 per cent of Australia's fuel reserves, and that has been particularly targeted at regional areas. We have temporarily changed petrol and diesel standards so more fuel can flow. That's why there is a supply of fuel now. That's why it isn't a crisis here, but there are distribution issues that are impacting the ease and readiness with which people have been able to access it.

We have also made it easier for Australia's refineries to access government funding when they run at a loss, because we don't want any brakes on their ability to produce. After we suffered the opposition in government for nearly a decade, the two refineries that remain are vital to our supply, and we are supporting them. We have also indicated a change to the law so that we can bring more fuel and we can help subsidise or underwrite whatever mechanism is needed to bring fuel in offshore. These are practical things, and we will do everything that is needed.

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