Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Energy is the economy. The economy is energy. We as a nation should have the cheapest energy in the world because we sit on so many of the energy requirements that other countries would be just so envious of. And yet we have this propensity in this nation to spurn anybody who wants to drill, anybody who wants to explore, anybody who wants to—dare I say—mine our resources. For too long this government has done just that.

Now, I took great heart driving around last week when I saw just near the turn off from the Hume freeway a tanker going onto a farm near the Burrinjuck Dam and turn off. I thought: 'Good. There is a diesel tanker going to a farmer who is just about to sow their crop.' Two Saturdays ago I saw a tanker going into Batlow. At the start of the Strait of Hormuz war in Iran fuel crisis—which is worldwide, and I will admit that—Batlow ran out of fuel. In that apple-growing community he orchardists had no diesel. Indeed, the whole community ground to a halt. When you have a country town that has no fuel, you have people there who then can't access vehicles to go and attend to their health needs. It does create quite a crisis. It is a matter of life and death—literally.

We have in this motion the government patting itself on the back for its energy sovereignty and for growing fuel reserves. The biggest issue some weeks ago—and it's still an issue today in regional Australia—was the supply, the distribution, the logistics of getting diesel to our country towns and also the affordability. I appreciate that the government has done something in relation to the cost. I appreciate that the government has done something in relation to the distribution. But it was nowhere near enough when the crisis was at its peak, and the crisis has not been averted.

The appointment on 19 March of Anthea Harris as the Fuel Supply Taskforce Coordinator was welcomed by some, but it took Minister Bowen's job away from him. He should have been doing that job that Ms Harris was appointed to do. Not only that but she's also doing reviews of the Water Act. If that wasn't a busy enough task then it probably wasn't her right and responsibility to be doing Minister Bowen's job as well.

But we have a situation here where Labor's also applauding itself for its gas exports domestic reservation scheme. I note Senator Pocock on Insiders yesterday, when quizzed by David Speers from the ABC as to the detail around his policy, said that's still to be worked out. It's always the same with these Independents, with all due respect to the members sitting behind me. They are never around the cabinet table when the hard work has to happen. They are never there when the grunt really must be made to get policy to legislation and then through the House. We're seeing the rise at the moment of One Nation again, another party that thinks it has all the answers. But, when it really comes to the crunch, it's hard work. It's hard work being a minister. It truly is. It's hard work being a government.

This government has failed on the energy front. It has. You don't have to drive far from here to see signs all over the Upper Lachlan Shire saying, 'No more industrial wind factories.' In the Yass Valley, people are distraught about the fact that their beautiful, serene, picturesque arable farmland, prime agricultural land, is being taken up, or potentially will be, by more wind towers. What's this government doing? It's pushing ahead with another $18 billion on its net zero fantasy, its net zero policy folly, it's net zero pipedream that is only hurting regional Australians. I say again: energy is the economy, and the government is failing on that front because it's not providing the cheap energy that our manufacturers and farmers need, want, expect and deserve.

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