House debates

Tuesday, 31 March 2026

Statements by Members

Fuel

1:57 pm

Photo of Andrew HastieAndrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Industry and Sovereign Capability) Share this | Hansard source

When Australians needed help at the fuel bowser, the coalition led and the Prime Minister followed. Australian families, tradies and small businesses will now pay less for fuel because the coalition acted first. But, without offsets in the budget, Labor's spending will drive inflation higher and will cut into people's purchasing power even further. But the issue here is that fuel security is vital to our economy and the ADF. That's why fuel security is national security, and that's why the Prime Minister needs to start leading. But we have no transparency from this government. We don't know how many ships are coming to Australia, we don't know where there are shortages in our supply and we don't know what the plan is to refuel our service stations.

Across the Tasman, the New Zealand government is leading. The New Zealand government is being transparent. It's updating its people on fuel supplies inside their country, on fuel inside the economic exclusion zone and on fuel shipments on the way from Asia. Where's that level of detail from this prime minister? What is the plan for next week and beyond? What's the plan for when the pressure really builds on the Australian people? When will you be transparent about the state of our fuel supplies? In a crisis, Australians expect strength, leadership and clarity. Right now, on all measures, the Prime Minister is failing to lead and failing to be transparent with the Australian people.

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