Colin Boyce (Flynn, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would just like to make some comments in respect of what the member for Lalor has just said, and I concur with her and congratulate her. Australians are suffering, and this is a crisis that affects everybody. The more that we can work together, the better results that we will have. So well done to you, Madam.

I rise to support the Treasury Laws Amendment (Fuel Excise Relief) Bill 2026. I think it's in the best interests of Australia that we support the government to do this. This is also the position of the coalition. And Australians need immediate relief. Removing half of the fuel excise and the heavy vehicle road user charge will go some way to alleviating those pressures, particularly for the transport industry.

Having said that, I do have some reservations about what that is going to do the budget, to our bottom line, to inflationary effects and so forth and how that might have influences on the economy into the future. It's really important, I think, that the government and the opposition and everybody concerned, including the general public, understand the ramifications of that. At the moment, we just do not see a plan to pay for all of that and a plan to outline offsets to make allowances for those hits to the budget—it's that simple. And it is a complicated thing; I understand that. But those are the things that we need to focus on.

I will make some brief comments about this whole issue in general. For me, this started about a month ago, in late February or early March, when this conflict in the Middle East started, and it had some significant immediate impacts—particularly to rural Queensland, where I come from, and the agricultural sector in particular. There developed, very quickly, a scenario where on-farm bulk diesel and bulk diesel to the transport sector and so forth was not being delivered—it was that simple. We heard the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, the Prime Minister, the Treasurer—many of the government people—say that there was plenty of fuel and there was fuel being delivered.

On the strength of that, I went to see the energy minister in his office—and I give him kudos for that. I walked straight into his office and met with his chief of staff, and one of his advisers, and the minister himself, and I tried to point out to them the issues that were actually happening—particularly in rural Queensland, where I come from. And it wasn't about supply, in respect of the big companies that control supply coming into Australia; this was about delivery. What was quite clear to me, in my discussions with people from Mr Bowen's office, is that they didn't quite understand how the supply chain works and what was happening at the time. The reality of it was that the third-party providers that usually transport fuel to the agricultural sector—on-farm diesel—and to the various trucking companies in the small communities all over rural and regional Queensland were simply not getting enough quota from the big companies. For me, that signalled the fact that the big companies that control the fuel were not allowing that distribution to happen.

Since then—and that was three or four weeks ago now—things have changed considerably, and we are starting to see some of that fuel getting delivered to where it's needed. And I note that, today, in question time, the Prime Minister, with the member for Grey down here, dealt directly with one of those issues down in South Australia, where there was a farmer that had no diesel and they'd sorted it out. So I give the government kudos for that. As I say, these are the issues that we need to work through, as a parliament, with an issue that is extremely complicated, because none of us really knows what is going to happen with the Middle East crisis and whether the Strait of Hormuz will eventually be opened and how that will affect future fuel supplies to Australia.

In my deliberations, I did also speak to the Minister for Resources—I actually spoke to her twice—about this issue of future fuel deliveries for Australia and how that might affect, particularly, heavy industry, transport and the agricultural sector. The big problem, to my understanding, is that, come the middle of April and May, for those fuel shipments that come to Australia in big ships from places like South Korea, for example, or from Indonesia or Singapore, many contracts will roll over, and it's very unsure whether they will get renewed again.

In my deliberations with the resources minister, I pointed out to her that it is extremely important that we ensure those fuel deliveries, particularly to our refineries, to the big importers, because, if Australia runs out of diesel, the whole country stops. We will be in a very, very difficult national security and economic situation if we don't have enough diesel for the mining and resources sector, for the transport sector and indeed for the agricultural sector. Like it or not, in spite of what some of my other parliamentary colleagues here have said, particularly the member for Warringah and the member for Canberra, who advocated that we should turn everything electric, that is not going to happen in the real world. Whilst that's a wonderful, pious idea, the reality of it is that there's no such thing as an electric combine harvester or an electric tractor that can farm round the clock.

I, unbeknown to many parliamentarians, own a road train. I'm probably one of the few parliamentarians that own a road train. I don't know whether anybody else does. My truck holds about 1,500 litres of diesel when it's full. At $3 or $4 a litre—you can do the maths on that—you're possibly spending $4,000 to $6,000 to fill the truck up. We use that truck to cart all manner of things, including cattle and grain and our requirements with respect to my agricultural sector. So the idea that one of those electric trucks that was proudly displayed down here in front of Parliament House over the last few days can replace what we've got now in the transport industry—whilst it might be a good idea in the future, it is simply not going to happen in the short term. The idea of an electric truck replacing diesel powered trucks is just absolute nonsense in the near to short term.

I think the removal of the road user charge has been a good thing from the government. Delivering that will definitely help the transport industry, who are absorbing a lot of this ongoing cost in the price of fuel, particularly with the delivery of all manner of consumer goods. Particularly in our grocery stores all over Australia, we will see groceries become more expensive for everybody because literally everything comes on the back of a truck. That's something that we need to be mindful of.

With respect to what I was talking about earlier with the minister for resources—I pointed out to her that she needs to make it known very clearly that Australia exports a lot of coal and gas to many of our near Asian neighbours, who supply us with fuel, and it's important that there's a quid pro quo scenario that goes on there to make sure that our fuel supplies are secured and their energy needs are secured. She concurred with that, and I give her kudos for that and for the meetings I've had with her.

I would like to touch on another issue that has come up. Some of the other speakers here in parliament have mentioned it. It's the fact that the ACCC has been given further and greater powers to police what might loosely be called rorting and playing the system. I've spoken on it on several occasions through the media and so forth, and what the people where I come from are asking is: what is the ACCC actually doing in respect of this? People are going to the local petrol station and, in a matter of a day, they're seeing price rises of 20c or 30c in some cases, but the fuel at the fuel station hasn't changed. So please explain to me, if that's not ripping the system and playing the system, what it is exactly. What does the ACCC need to prosecute people who are breaking the law? One of the speakers here in parliament mentioned that there was something like a $100 million maximum fine with respect to the big companies playing the system. I think what people want is evidence of what exactly the ACCC is doing, rather than it being seen as a toothless tiger.

One of the other issues I'd like to mention is our future, what we should be advocating for as Australians, and that is more self-reliance in this space—

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