Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australia is facing a serious fuel supply shock, and it's hitting at the worst possible time. Families in my electorate and right across regional Australia are already under enormous pressure. They are working hard, doing their best to get ahead, but every month it feels like they are falling further behind. Groceries are up, power bills are up, rents and mortgages are up and now fuel, one of the most essential costs in daily life, is becoming harder to access and more expensive.

In regional communities, fuel is not an option. It is not a discretionary cost. It is how you get to work. It is how you take your kids to school. It is how small businesses operate. It is how farmers move goods. And it is how communities stay connected. When fuel supply is disrupted and prices rise, it hits everything. It hits the price of food on the shelf. It hits the cost of getting goods to market. It hits the viability of small businesses already running on tight margins. Right now, that pressure is real. We are seeing service stations running dry. We are seeing prices at levels many Australians have never experienced before. We are seeing families forced to rethink everyday decisions—whether they can afford to travel, visit family or even take their kids to sport. Let me give you a real-world example from a pineapple farmer in Yeppoon. Normally, this farm relies on 1,500 litres of fuel every week. Right now, it's been rationed to 1,000 litres, only around 60 per cent of what it needs. In the short term, this is a small buffer, but, if this rationing continues for two weeks, pineapple farming operations will stop. The farm will still pick fruit, but it will not plant new crops. That means that, in two years time, there'll be no fruit to harvest.

This is not just a supply issue; this is an economic warning sign. It shows how quickly a fuel disruption today becomes a production crisis tomorrow and a cost-of-living hit down the track. That is the reality on the ground. But at a time that calls for leadership and urgency, what Australians have seen from this government is delay and denial. For weeks, concerns about fuel supply were dismissed. Australians were told there was no problem. Then, when the situation worsened, the messaging changed, and then, when the crisis became unavoidable, the government acted. This is not leadership. In a crisis like this, Australians expect the government to be across the details, to be prepared and to act early.

In that context, we are debating this bill. Let me be clear, the coalition will support it, because this bill does something practical. It allows Export Finance Australia to step in during extraordinary disruptions to help secure essential imports like fuel and fertiliser. That is a sensible measure. In a crisis, governments should be able to act quickly to support supply chains to ensure that essential goods can reach Australia. We will always support practical steps that help keep the country moving, but we also need to be honest about what this bill is and what it is not. This bill is not a silver bullet. It does not get fuel to empty service stations today. It does not bring down prices at the bowsers tomorrow. And it does not fix the underlying problem that left Australia exposed in the first place.

The deeper issue here is one of preparedness. Australia is entering this crisis weaker than it should be. After years in government, Labor has failed to strengthen our domestic fuel capability. Instead, we are now more reliant on overseas supply and more vulnerable to global disruptions. What matters, especially for a country like Australia, where distance and logistics are everything, is that there is a clear contradiction at the heart of the government's approach. On one hand, they are asking taxpayers to underwrite imported fuel during a crisis; on the other hand, their policies are restricting investment in the very industries that underpin our energy security here at home. That simply does not make sense. If fuel is important enough to import and stockpile, it is important enough to support domestically. National security starts with domestic capability.

The coalition's approach is straightforward. We support practical measures to improve supply in the short term, like this bill, but we also believe in building long-term resilience. That means backing Australian production; it means removing barriers to invest in oil, gas and critical resources; it means ensuring our institutions, including Export Finance Australia, can support the industries that keep our economy strong; and it means rebuilding sovereign capability so that in times of crisis Australia can stand on its own two feet. We cannot keep lurching from crisis to crisis, relying on emergency measures to paper over deeper structural problems.

But supply is only part of the equation. The other part is cost. Right now, Australian families and small businesses need relief immediately. This bill helps finance supply, but it does nothing to ease the immediate cost pressures people are facing at the bowser. That is the gap that needs to be addressed. The coalition is pleased that the government has taken our advice and cut the fuel excise in half for three months, because this is the fastest, most direct way to deliver relief. It works immediately at the point of sale. It does not rely on complex systems or delayed reimbursements. It does not require small businesses to wait months for the BAS cycle to see any benefit. It puts money back into people's pockets straight away. The difference it will make is real, around 26c per litre off fuel prices and $20 off a typical tank—real savings for households already under pressure.

For small businesses, whether it's a tradie, a delivery driver, a florist or a cleaner, it means lower operating costs straight away—no delay, no paperwork, no lag, just relief when it is needed most. For the transport sector, it is just as important. Truck drivers and freight operators are on the front line of this crisis. They are facing rising costs, tight margins and increasing pressure. Reducing the road user charge alongside the excise ensures that relief flows through the entire supply chain. It's not just about fuel prices that come down; it's about the cost of goods as well. Australians are facing a perfect storm of global supply shocks on top of domestic cost pressures. Families are stretched. Small businesses are under strain.

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