Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Fuel Excise Relief) Bill 2026. I relish the opportunity to support this bill and the actions of this government at this time in response to the war in the Middle East and the implications that it's having across the globe and to share with the House how that's impacting my local community. This legislation gives effect to the announcement on Monday 30 March by the Prime Minister, the Treasurer, the Minister for Climate Change and Energy and the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government that we will halve fuel excise—a reduction of 26c per litre—on petrol and diesel for three months from 1 April 2026 to 30 June 2026. This will reduce the cost of a 65-litre tank of fuel by nearly $19. We will also reduce the heavy vehicle road user charge to zero for those same three months. This decision will save trucking operators 32.4c per litre in total, which is about $130 on a 400-litre tank. This is really important. We've also deferred, in this legislation, the six per cent increase in the road user charge. These measures are here to reduce pressure on our road users. Whether road users are filling a car, a ute, a truck or a bus—whatever they're using fuel for—these measures are here to create some wriggle room, some relief, on the price of petrol, in response to what's happening in the Middle East. I think they're really important measures.

I give a nod to those opposite for the contortions that they've had to do today in terms of claiming that the government's responding to their calls for this, while, in the same breath, saying it's the wrong thing to do. I'm very confused when I listen to those opposite. I hear from them that it needs offsets, but I never hear what they want to cut in those offsets.

In my community—and particularly in communities across the country that, like mine, are represented on this side of the House more often than not—people travel long distances for work and are already shopping for cheaper fuel to make it possible for them to get to and from work and still meet their commitments as a family. It's often two people who are doing that. These people are likely to be working often in transport and logistics, where I know these issues are having an impact every day.

I want to pay tribute to the leadership of this government for the measures that they've put in place across this week and for the way they have responded—not in a reactive way but in a thoughtful way. I want the people in my community to know that, as a government, this government has your back. We have your back on this. You can rely on the fact that this government is listening and understanding the pressures that you're under, but also that we won't react; we will think in measured ways about how we can act to support you. I think it's critical at the moment that everybody understands that that's what's happening here.

That's why it's also really important that the National Cabinet are involved here and that states and the federal government are working together. I think it's really important to see the three levels of government working together to support Australians through this. Unlike those opposite, we know there is no answer to the question of when the disruption from the Middle East conflict is going to end. We don't know that, and we can't predict that. What we can do is plan to do our best and plan to support Australians as best we can as a government. That's exactly what we're doing this week, and that's exactly what we're doing in this bill. This will give some comfort around price. There'll be a saving at the bowser.

As I heard the minister for energy say this morning, we're also very concerned. We don't want people to get out of their car and go in and abuse someone working at a service station because the price hasn't dropped yet. There's a flow-through time to this. But, by the same token, we do want to know what's happening out there. We do want to know if people are putting prices up that the public think are above and beyond what we should be seeing or if one company's putting prices up in an extraordinary way. We do want to know. We do want to know the impact that this is having on our families and on our communities, and I would encourage my community to let us know.

I received an email yesterday, while sitting here in question time, from a community member that relayed a story about a member of my community who is travelling a long way for health treatments. There's concern that, driving a diesel vehicle, he won't be able to afford those trips and therefore might miss medical appointments that are across the other side of Melbourne at times. We need to know those things. I need to be able to carry that story into this place to make sure that we're focused on the right things and, really importantly, to make sure that my office and I can work with state government member offices, state governments and local governments and be helpful where we can.

My first question yesterday on receipt of that email was: is there a way that we can transfer this person's health treatment to somewhere closer and is there a way that I can reach out to the state member and get him working with Mercy Health and Western Health to see if we can't move something from Sunshine or Monash to somewhere closer in Werribee or Altona? That would be something that we would look to do. If it's my community, I need to know. We can't help if we don't know. So please get those emails coming in.

Also the best people in the world to do price watch are our local communities. So let us know if you see something unusual happening out there because the Treasurer wants to know and I want to be the first person to tell the Treasurer so that we can make sure people aren't being ripped off.

I also want to pay homage to the other things that we've done this week that have ensured supply, ensured that the cargo ships with crude oil and fuel continue to come to Australia. I want to pay homage to the foreign minister, the minister for energy and the whole leadership team for the way they are working with our neighbours and our trading partners to ensure that we continue to get the supply into this country. Australians should not be punished for something happening in the Middle East. But, by the same token, this is global and, as a country, we can only respond. It's important how we respond. This legislation is one of the things that demonstrates the way this government will respond.

The cheapest fuel I can find in my local community is $2.51 per litre, ranging to $2.61.9 as the most expensive. Most servos are sitting at 259.9c at the moment. I'm putting that out there now. What I'm saying is that that's today's prices. Keep an eye on that locally and make sure that you're communicating with us.

I think it's really important that people understand that we do understand what people are going through. We know that these price shocks will be running through household budgets. We know that that will be impacting on local communities. Of course we know, because it's impacting on the people we know and love as well as it is on the people that we represent.

We have added hundreds of millions of litres of diesel and petrol by releasing some of our minimum stock obligations. We're temporarily reducing the sulphur content standards to ensure more fuel can be sold here in Australia, and we're providing more support to our domestic refineries. And, of course, we can't go past this fact. I am a Melbourne western suburbs MP and I stood in front of the Mobil gates when Mobil announced that they were closing the Altona refinery. I mourned that day because I knew what that meant to so many families and to so many workers—and generations of workers—at Mobil who live in my electorate. We are now bearing the costs for a lack of action from the previous government, where we have only two refineries operating in this country now because four closed under the previous government.

We're providing more certainty to the private sector by underwriting fuel imports where appropriate. This is really important. It's obviously really complex, but it's basically about the fact that Australian companies reaching out to contract to bring fuel into the country will be facing varying prices in the spot market, and this is a way that government can support them to underwrite or guarantee, if you like, that they can afford the shock if there's a rapid price drop. So it's us supporting companies to support Australians.

We're empowering the ACCC to crack down on misconduct, including doubling the penalties to up to $100 million fines for anybody caught price gouging the Australian public, and working with the ACCC to authorise major suppliers to get fuel where it's needed in the regions and ramp up fuel price monitoring. I think that's an important point to make, too, and I think it's important for people at home to understand that. As we hear in question time every day when the Minister for Climate Change and Energy gives us figures and numbers in response to our questions or those opposites' questions or when he's appearing on televisions in the morning, there is more demand. As people start to think, 'I'm going to need fuel next week,' we need to see people doing the right thing. We need to see people supporting one another as we do in times of crisis. We need to see that every day. We need it in my community. If you know that a neighbour catches the same train as you do, then knock on their door and offer to carpool to the station. Those are the sorts of things that will assist and will reduce the demand.

We've got fuel coming in, but we did make the decision that fuel would go to the regions we knew needed it most because of an increase in demand but also because of things like New South Wales farmers having to plant. They need the diesel to make sure that that can happen while it's planting season, which is right now. The decisions that are being made are not being made recklessly or without thought. We're being thoughtful. But the important piece here is that those decisions must be informed by what Australians know and what Australians need. As I've heard our frontbenchers say at the dispatch box all week—and I look to members opposite—if your communities have information that the government needs and that would inform government actions, then we need to hear about that as well.

I think that probably the strongest message I can give to my community is that the government are working hard every day and are trying to get things right and put them in place to give surety in an incredibly unpredictable time. No-one's got a crystal ball here. We can't predict what is going to happen with any surety. It's not the way anybody wants to govern. It's not the way any community wants to live, but it's our actual reality right now. Let's stay in touch with one another, stay connected and start to work together with one another—with our neighbours and community.

I want to give a shout-out to the Victorian state government for the free public transport for this month, because I think it's already giving some security to people at home that they don't need their Myki at the moment to travel on a train in Victoria. Just go down and get on that train. That's going to give some more cost-of-living relief where it matters. Again, national leadership was shown by National Cabinet in terms of the measures that are going to be taken around the GST windfall provision so that state governments aren't going to get more GST money in as a windfall. They're going to work with the Treasurer to make sure that that money stays in the system rather than be taken out of the system. I think that one's really important.

On a whole, to my community: keep the emails coming, and let us know how we might help. There are some pretty intelligent people at all levels of government, and, if all levels of government are working together, we'll be in a better place. To all members of this House: I think it's incredibly important that we all work together to make sure we get the best outcomes for people all the way along the breadth and length of this country, from the regions to the suburbs and the outer suburbs, like places I represent. We need to make sure that we stay aware of the specific and individualised needs of those communities and make sure that they're taken into consideration when we're making decisions.

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