David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

While we support the Treasury Laws Amendment (Fuel Excise Relief) Bill 2026, this looks more like a response to a Newspoll than an appropriate plan for a national crisis. We were told there was no crisis when President Trump initiated this war on 28 February, but I would have thought the appropriate response would have been to convene the National Security Committee and bring the energy minister into that meeting. The advice to government on 28 February would have been about not only the conflict in the Middle East but also the flow-on effects it would have on the supply of fuel into this country and the supply chains here.

I find it difficult to understand how a government—which has a plan now, despite the fact on 28 February the world changed—didn't take or heed the advice of the National Security Committee not just about the military risks but about the supply chain risks that were coming down the line. In fact, they assured us there was no crisis; fuel was going to continue to flow and we had no supply issue whatsoever. The reality was it was different to what we experienced, the lived experience of many Australians. What this government did was work in the superficial. It made sure that fuel went to the big service stations in capital cities so that there was calm and there was no need for panic buying, and so Australians thought there was no issue. Underneath that, the reality was they forgot about the real supply chains that underpin our economy, and that comes from regional Australia.

What they didn't understand was the secondary wholesale markets that supply regional Australians. The big four don't supply regional Australians—not only our service stations but also our farmers—with bulk supplies. The distributors, who go out on farm and put fuel into the tanks on farm to allow machinery to be able to operate, had their supply constrained. What these big fuel companies, the big four, were doing was supplying these smaller distributors and their pricing—for many of those they actually pay the price of the monthly average of the month before. What the big four were saying was: 'We are going to actually withhold supply out of the market because what we're worried about is another price shock. If President Trump stops dropping bombs and there's a drop in the price, we will hedge against that drop. We will constrain the amount of supply we put out into the market so that we don't lose as much money, even though we are making money on the way up.' That is what was happening to the distributors across my electorate. They were being turned away at the Port of Brisbane; they were unable to go and get that fuel and take it out on farm. That was where the Treasurer and the ACCC and this government were asleep at the wheel, because they worked on the fact that as long as fuel was going to the service stations in capital cities, it would all be okay. Australia will be calm. But the reality is that if you don't have fuel, you don't have food.

This government have been exposed for not having a plan since 28 February, when they should have had advice not just about the military impact this would have but also the supply chain impact. If they didn't, they need to tell us why they didn't think about it.

The reality is when the market out in regional Australia was being constrained by these big four in holding back supply, not only was this about a commercial decision of hedging against a price shock of the price going down but I would have thought it would have been a trigger for the ACCC to say, 'If they are constraining supply, they are pushing up prices.' And the farmers were seeing that was pushing up prices straight away—if they could get fuel! The fact the Treasurer did not twig to this shows he didn't understand the market, but he had an energy minister who was oblivious to all of this.

The galling part of this was that you had an energy minister that was also oblivious to the powers he had and to what was at his fingertips—from 28 February, when the bombs started dropping in Iran, what he had available to manage the situation. Because of legislation that we put in when we were in power as a coalition, he actually had at his fingertips, at his disposal, the knowledge of where every litre of fuel was in this country. He could have known exactly where it was and where there were shortfalls and where fuel was not being delivered, particularly in regional Australia. What he also had was the power to lean in and ensure that that fuel was being distributed to where it needed to be. We were assured there was no supply issue; this was a distribution issue.

I would have thought that the advice to the government from the National Security Committee on 28 February was that these contingencies needed to be wargamed, these contingencies needed to be worked through, because this would have a serious impact on Australia's supply chains. If we learnt nothing from COVID about toilet paper—I would have thought fuel would have been one of those commodities that a conflict in the Middle East would have triggered National Security Committee to say, 'We might have a problem, Australia. We might need to manage this supply.'

Two weeks later the government decides, 'Yes, we'd better do something about this. What we'll do is we'll come to parliament and we'll increase the penalties from the ACCC—up to $100 million for those companies that were undertaking anticompetitive behaviour.' Well, penalties are not the issue. The ACCC could have and should have already started an investigation into the secondary wholesale market, but they too seem to be asleep at the wheel. They too don't seem to understand the fuel market enough to have already leant in and to have started an investigation to make sure that, when they drove past a fuel station, prices went up straightaway, particularly when they could get on any app and look anywhere in Australia, including regional Australia. They may not have understood. They could see that there was issues, but then the supply issues would have been something if they understood the market, if it was being constrained—someone was constraining it if we didn't have a supply issue. You can increase the penalties, but, if the ACCC aren't doing their job as they should, then they're not worth the paper they're written on. I've got to say regional Australians have become very cynical about the effectiveness of the ACCC. They see them as being as effective as the Bureau of Meteorology.

That is the reality of the lived experience and the frustration and the fear that regional Australians are feeling out there because we do not have our fuel. Our farmers are not able to turn an engine. For some farmers in my own electorate, the only fuel they had on farm was what was left in their tractors and headers. They had nothing in supply, which meant they couldn't turn them on. They couldn't harvest. They couldn't sow. That is going to have a flow-on effect on each one of us—when the food doesn't turn up in your supermarket. Lo and behold, the government realises maybe we do have a supply issue and a distribution problem.

Despite the fact that the minister had at his fingertips from 28 February, when this crisis started, the knowledge of exactly where the supply was and where it needed to go, and he had powers to move that fuel, he did nothing. He has sat on his hands and watched this transform. Lo and behold, the Prime Minister had to step in and take over because the Minister for Climate Change and Energy has been shown to be incompetent in managing a crisis. Despite the warning signs, despite what should have been said at National Security Committee—advice of the threat to our supply chains of something as serious as a conflict in the Middle East, as serious as keeping the fuel flowing into areas that keep our economy going in terms of not only food but also resources to be able to get to a port and to pay the bills.

This is a government that is now trying to catch up. They're having to catch up because they didn't appreciate the gravity or severity of the crisis that was in front of this country. And I suspect they were advised of that. I have every confidence in our agencies and that that advice would have been provided to this government from 28 February on. Our agencies are some of the best in the world in giving that advice—in wargaming exactly what this would mean for our country and for our economy, particularly after the lessons of COVID and toilet paper. For something as serious as fuel, I find it galling that now we have a catch-up about a supply issue.

First there's no crisis; then there's a crisis. Then we're going to send in the ACCC, who you wouldn't trust to actually pull any of this into line because they didn't understand the market—the regional market that's driven by wholesalers. They could have rung any one of these fuel distributors in regional Australia, and they would have got a lesson in the fuel market in less than five minutes. If the ACCC was really over their job and had leant in to make sure they freed up that supply, they would have underwritten, from the very start, the fuel prices—the fuel being bought—so that it could be distributed into regional Australia. That's the lived experience of what's happened when you have farmers without it. But you also have towns without it.

I live near Clifton. They've already mandated how much fuel you can take. They've taken us down to 40 litres; 40 litres is all you can take. The next service station is 80 kays down the road at Texas, a town of 800 people. It's 80 kays to the closest town down the road, so you've got to drive 80 kays to get fuel. It's not like the capital cities, where you can drive down to another suburb and you can fill up. These are people that rely on this for their wellbeing, not just their livelihoods. You had a government that didn't understand supply chains and didn't understand regional Australia. Quite frankly, it seems as though they didn't care that you have people in regional Australia—a town of 800 people—without fuel.

Allora, just down the road from me, is without fuel. Bartranz, a local distributor, was trying to fill up headers for sorghum to be harvested and couldn't get supply. They were turned away from getting any supply at the Port of Brisbane. This is the stark reality of the lived experience of Australians at the moment. This is a government that hasn't understood their responsibility nor the gravity of what has happened. While we're sitting here and we say we're doing a lot, let me tell you, for three weeks regional Australia has been on fire, because it looks as though this government does not care and has not thought about them in the contingency of a world event that is reshaping the globe but is also reshaping this country.

They haven't understood the gravity nor understood the importance of what regional Australia does: how we feed you and how we pay your bills with sending iron ore and coal out on a boat. If we can't get it there, it doesn't happen. This is where there has to be an appreciation, too, of the transport sector—the heavy transport sector. This industry is the essential lifeline keeping this country going. Our trucking industry needs to be protected in this. These small family businesses that have had the courage to use their own sweat and their own wallets to have a go, to put trucks out there and to get your food from a paddock to your plate, are now on their knees. They're on their knees.

While this is an initiative that we support, it is weeks late. These men and women who are carting your food have been going broke because there hasn't been an understanding of their importance in our country's economy and our supply chains. You in metropolitan Australia have the convenience to turn up to a supermarket knowing that it's just sitting there on a shelf. This is a big awakening for Australia to make them understand how important regional Australia is, how important our supply chains are and how important it is that, if you get advice, you don't work superficially to only look after people in capital cities. Ultimately, if you don't have us you don't have food and you don't have an economy.

That is the stark reality that regional Australians have had to face up to from a government that should have had advice on 28 February, not a couple of weeks down the track. I find it appalling that this government did not act after 28 February, that they did not see this coming at them like a freight train. There is no way in the world that that advice was not given to them. Instead, when the minister had every tool at his disposal, he knew where every litre of fuel was and I don't think he asked for it on 28 February. I think he thought, so long as it turned up to a city servo, it was all okay, all hunky-dory. Everyone will be calm. Everyone will do okay out of this. But the fuel stopped going into those secondary markets, and you've got a Treasurer that didn't understand what he was asking the ACCC to do.

I've written to the Treasurer about this. Let me also say what the ACCC—it's predatory behaviour of the big four fuel companies. I have them in my electorate going to these smaller distributors, picking the eyes out of their market—picking them out of them—and saying to these customers, 'These small distributors can't supply to you anymore, so start writing a contract with us.' That's the abhorrent behaviour that has been created because the government hasn't used the tools nor the powers at their disposal from 28 February on.

That is what regional Australians and small family businesses who were in that secondary wholesale market are now facing: predatory behaviour from the big four service stations. That's what they are doing to us out there. It'll all be great for a while. But you know what? They'll get sick of us and they'll go back and they'll retract to the city, and you'll have nothing in regional Australia.

This is the price we are going to pay. This is the legacy that will be left by a government that didn't heed the advice, was asleep at the wheel and allowed Australia to effectively stop. This is catch-up by a government that's been driven by Newspoll rather than its responsibility to stand up and protect Australians and to understand the importance of regional Australia and the supply chains we provide to every Australian. This is a day of shame for this government. They have finally been shamed into doing something instead of being ahead of the game. That shows we've got a government that doesn't understand this country and doesn't understand regional Australia—and we are all paying the price.

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