Barnaby Joyce (New England, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to start by reading something that I've just received. I'm getting lots of these:

As of today, the main Shell truck bowsers in Tamworth are empty—

of fuel—

yet still pumping air and charging us for the privilege. This unmanned site has now created a significant administrative burden. We cannot get confirmation about restocking timeframes, and we are told refunds may take 24-48 hours. It's left our staff to cross-check and reconcile what fuel, if any, our trucks actually received.

… one of our trucks—fueling from two separate bowsers—accumulated over $200 on the meter before the driver realised the pumps were empty.

There is a fuel crisis. It's happening. It's rolling out, and we have got to have a plan if you want to stop panic. There is no plan.

Here is another one for those in the cattle game. There was a truck from Betts Transport. It did a number of runs—ran out to Ebor up to Dorrigo, back to Caroona Feedlot, which is near Quirindi, and then to the Gunnedah saleyards. Those B-doubles take 1,800 litres of fuel to fill up. They have about 90 head of cattle. Gunnedah saleyards had 6,500 head that day. That means you have about 72 B-doubles worth of cattle, and 72 B-doubles worth of cattle and fuel is about 130,000 litres. It wasn't there. The fuel just was not there.

This is what happened. The truck goes in and realises it's down on fuel, and because it's not getting to them in bulk amounts, because they can't buy it in bulk amounts, they go to the fuel stations. Guess what happens there. They run the fuel stations out of fuel. Then the people driving up the road, trying to get somewhere, get to these towns, and they're not going anywhere because there is no fuel. There are no charging facilities either, so forget about that. What happens then is that the prime mover with 90 head of cattle has to disarticulate. It's got a little bit of fuel left, and it just goes driving from petrol station to petrol station, which are also empty. And, when it does load up, it's going to run that village out of fuel. In the end, they couldn't find fuel. So there's 90 head of cattle sitting on a truck.

This just gives you an example of what is happening. We've got to understand it and take it seriously. People are getting so furious out there. They're watching question time, and they're not seeing people take their problems seriously. As I said, that was a big operator. They're starting to move groceries. They said: 'It's going to run out. If we don't have fuel, we are not able to run the groceries to the supermarkets.' There has got to be a plan. The plan may entail saying to people in the cities: 'Sorry, there's only so much fuel you can use so that we can have fuel in the country, because, if the trucks stop moving, your food stops moving. And, if your food stops moving, you'll only need a couple of supermarkets to run out and then you really will have panic. You'll have it big time.'

So get in front of the situation and deal with it. It is not in One Nation's interests, in Labor's interests, in the Liberals' interests or in the National's interests for this nation not to realise what is happening right now. I've written to the Treasurer, just so people know. I've actually handwritten him a note because I know how it works—those ones get read. These independent operators are not bad people. They just said they've got to get a chance to sit down with the Treasurer. They're not saying, 'Oh, we hate the Labor Party.' They're saying, 'Give us a chance to sit down with the Treasurer and the ACCC, because the information you're getting is not the reality we're living.' A lot of the big fuel suppliers, your BPs and your Shells, are quite happy if some of these independents go under, because they'll just take their market share off them. So this is a lot more complex, and it's rolling out.

Every day we don't get on top of this, it gets worse and worse and worse. I'm getting more and more of these letters coming to my office. These are from rational, sane, serious business people. They're dealing in multimillion-dollar businesses, and we're showing the naivety of this building if we don't start taking these people seriously. The best way to take them seriously is to say: 'Okay, come on down. We'll have a meeting in the Treasurer's office or the Minister for Finance's office. Let's see if we can sort this out.' It's in nobody's interests if the trucks that deliver to the supermarkets stop moving.