Garth Hamilton (Groom, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Energy Security and Affordability) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's an absolute delight to get out of the Canberra bubble and go home to my wonderful electorate, but the stories I bring back are not great. I spoke to a farmer who had to stop mid-harvest because the price of petrol meant that he was no longer going to receive a profit from continuing on with his work. I spoke to a family in Toowoomba who could not afford to make the hour-long drive back and forth to Millmerran to see their elderly grandparents because the price of petrol made it unaffordable. I spoke to a truck driver who was having fuel stolen from his truck while he slept.

The clash of two worlds—what's happening out there and what's happening in the bubble—could not be more stark. We had a minister here, telling us there was no fuel supply issue in Australia. He blamed those farmers, those families, those truck drivers for causing the issue. He said it was panic buying. Minister, you cannot panic-buy from an empty servo. That's what we're experiencing. This minister needs to get out and see this.

How could he have handled this differently? Do you know what he could've done? He could've followed our blueprint from the AdBlue crisis of 2021. He could've followed what we did. Instead, he's been distracted. He's more concerned about being president of COP31. He's more concerned about his international commitments and looking good on the grand stage. He is not on the ground, experiencing what Australians are experiencing. It's an absolutely disgraceful performance from this minister, and I will call him out.