Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This government is failing the people of Australia. There is no question about that. There's a cost-of-living crisis, and now we have a fuel crisis, which is not being managed, as we've just heard from the member for Casey—it's not being managed at all. A letter was sent by the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. We need far more than that.

I have farmers in my electorate—Trevor and Dave come to my mind. Horsham, Rainbow—out there in the bush, they can't get fuel. They're trying to spray their crops. They're trying to seed crops. I also have horticulturalists, almond growers, who are absolutely stressed by the fact that they cannot get fuel, and they don't know when they're going to be able to get fuel. This is an absolute shame on the Albanese Labor government—that the people of Australia, particularly regional Australia, are bearing the cost of the failures of this government. There is no excuse. We hear from the government every day '10 years of neglect'—no, four years in government. What have they got to show for it? The fact is that the farmers out in my electorate are suffering, and the people of Australia will not be able to get the food that they need on supermarket shelves if this continues.