Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have received a letter from the honourable member for Goldstein proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The failure of the government to secure adequate fuel supply, pushing up the cost of living across the economy.

I call upon those honourable members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just think about the challenges Australian families are facing right now. You've got parents who are waiting patiently as they turn up to the petrol station, wondering what the cost is going to be to fill up their car, wondering whether there's going to be any fuel. In New South Wales, we know that 10 per cent—based on the minister's answers in question time today—are absent of fuel and waiting.

Australians are waiting at the supermarket to see whether they can afford to pay the final bill as they scan the items. Increasingly, we hear many Australian families choose the self-checkout lane to stop the humiliation they will feel if they have to return an item from their basket. They are waiting to see whether they can afford the bill. They are waiting to see whether there's going to be a situation in the future where they're going to be able to continue to afford their mortgage. They're seeing inflation continue to rage, interest rates continue to rise and looking at their diminishing bank account under this government and wondering how much longer they're going to have.

The experience around the country is real. There has been a 16 per cent increase in food prices since the election of this government, and 166 petrol stations are now out of fuel. We know that, as inflation continues to rage, households are going to feel the pinch, and they're going to look to the future and wonder whether they can get ahead. There is a follow through from events overseas, but there is also a follow through specifically from what people are living with right now.

I'll ask a simple question. What do these things have in common: the lowest consumer confidence on record; expected highest inflation on record; highest small business insolvencies on record; record government spending outside a war or pandemic; record taxpayers' money handed to organised crime; record taxpayers' money provided to corruption rather than to essential services like the NDIS, health care and child care; and record jobs created by public spending? The one thing all these things have in common is the Albanese government, because this government is running Australia into the ground. They are not seeking to boost it or to grow growth or opportunity for the next generation of Australians. All they are hearing from this government is excuses.

If only you could fill your car with the minister for energy's excuses. If only you could buy a home with the Prime Minister's excuses, and if only you could pay off your mortgage with the Treasurer's excuses. Australians know right now the pain that they are living with under this Albanese government, and they know because they know the consequences, as the RBA governor only last week said, are material. After announcing an interest rate hike off the back of inflation data from the second half of last year, the RBA governor made it crystal clear that, unfortunately, we may not have seen the end of this inflation pressure and interest rate hikes.

We want Australians to look to the future with confidence and hope, but they are being dragged down by a bad government that is running Australia into the ground, and this is the problem Australians are facing right now. The government, in a point of arrogance and hubris, continues to pour debt petrol on the inflation fire. They continue record spending, and no matter how much and how many times they're called out by economists or the Reserve Bank governor, the only response from the Albanese government is to try and bully their critics into silence.

There is a compelling reason why Australians must stand up and call that out, and they are standing up and calling it out, because they know that they are living with the consequences of this government's agenda. More to the point, they know that when the government runs out of money, they will come after Australians' money instead. If they run out of money, they come after yours. That's the problem with the Albanese government. Even worse than that, while Australian households are going to the supermarket and wondering if they can afford the next 15 bucks or 30 bucks in their trolley or in their red basket, the Albanese government is a participant in providing $15 billion to $30 billion to organised crime through the CFMEU-Labor cartel. Their only solution to that is to turn around and go after more Australians' money as they float new taxes and new charges in the forthcoming federal budget.

I think we need to put this in perspective—the scale of the problem this country has under the Albanese government and the CFMEU-Labor cartel. So I thought the best place to look was Transparency International's '25 corruption scandals that shook the world'. I'll go through each of them, one by one, and identify where it is that the CFMEU-Labor cartel handing billions to organised crime sits in the rankings of the most corrupt regimes on earth.

The lowest one they came up with was the Nigerian prince arrangements. They came in at about $5 million.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

$5 million!

Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is just amateur-hour stuff, I'm afraid to say, Manager of Opposition Business. Then they looked at Spain and the Watergate papers—five million euros; Turkiye and gas for gold—$17.5 million; Peru and death squads, embezzlement and public relations—a mere $600 million. This is amateur hour in comparison. You keep going through each one of them and finally you get to around where we are in Australia right now: Tunisia and the 'shutting down competition' scandal—that was $13 billion. Well, we didn't quite win; I will accept that.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Who won?

Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll tell you who won, outside of the Albanese government and their behaviour. Coming in in third place was Russia with the troika laundromat, where a full-scale bank laundered money, to the tune of $26 billion. That's third place. This list hasn't been updated. That was once silver, but now it is bronze. Then of course you have the CFMEU-Labor cartel, where $15 billion to $30 billion of Australian taxpayers' money has been handed to organised crime.

Who is it that managed to beat the CFMEU-Labor cartel? It was the missing millions scandal of Ukraine—up to $40 billion. In this case, a Ukrainian court found a particular individual guilty of high treason and sentenced them to 13 years in prison. As they fled, they left behind documents that showed how they'd financed a life of luxury at the expense of citizens, using nominees as frontmen in a complex web of shell companies, from Vienna to London to Liechtenstein—I could almost add 'and potentially to some super funds', but we won't go there. Swedish broadcasters eventually reported that the shell company with a Swedish bank account received $3.7 million in one bribe alone.

What happens when you have this industrial-scale corruption? The family fled to Russia in February 2014, after civil unrest sparked deadly conflict that claimed over 100 lives, including by sniper bullets. What about a regime that is alleged to have laundered between $15 billion and $30 billion of public money to organised crime through the CFMEU-Labor cartel? Well, they sit in government, and this is the problem. In Victoria you've got the Allan government and in Canberra you've got the Albanese government.

There are consequences for that, because that is Australian taxpayers' money. When Australians are going to the petrol station to get the fuel they need, they're finding they're not getting it at a price they can afford—if there's even anything in the bowser. There's plenty of fuel for inflation, but there isn't for farmers and families. What are Australians experiencing when they go to the supermarket? Increasingly, they're having to put items back because they can't afford the cost of inflation that this Albanese government is imposing on them.

This government keeps borrowing from the future to pay for today, creating an intergenerational problem. The next generation of Australians aren't just going to live with the consequences of inflation; they're going to live with the consequences of the taxes to pay for it, because it's also fuelled by debt. At every point this Albanese government has no understanding of the consequences of what it's doing. But I can assure you of one thing: when they run out of money, they're coming after Australians.

Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The three major parties of the right in this country have one thing in common: they're very happy to trade in anger but very unhappy to actually come up with answers. They are all about slogans, but they have no solutions to Australia's problems.

If you want to think about how Australia is facing the crisis in the Middle East today, just think about how we would have been placed if the coalition had remained in office. Under them, when fuel prices exceeded $2 a litre, at the beginning of the Ukraine war, what was the biggest penalty that the ACCC could impose? It was a $10 million penalty. We increased penalties to $50 million in 2022—

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Manager of Opposition Business, you're not even in your seat!

Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

and we have made clear that we will now increase them to $100 million, with the Treasurer to introduce legislation to this House tomorrow.

Under them, we had four major refineries close. When the Leader of the Opposition was the energy minister, we went from six refineries in Australia down to four. Under them we had Australia's fuel reserve sitting in Texas. Under us it sits in Queensland and Victoria. If the coalition had had their way, Australia would have continued to languish, rejecting the electric vehicle revolution. Under us, we've seen EVs go from four per cent to 12 per cent as a share of new vehicle sales. That means fewer Australians are lining up at the bowser and that the fuel is better able to get around existing vehicle owners. They opposed the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard, which is seeing more Australians move to more fuel-efficient vehicles, taking pressure off the fuel supply. In their last summer in office, there was twice the amount of gas used in the national electricity market as in the most recent summer.

We've just heard from the shadow Treasurer a whole litany of things which, surprisingly, had nothing to do with the MPI topic that he decided to bring forward. So, given that he decided to stray off the topic, I think it's worth reminding the House of a few of the points that the shadow Treasurer has stood for in the past. Let's face it, if there were a frequent flyer program for unpopular ideas, the shadow Treasurer would have lifetime gold status. He has in the past derided work-from-home arrangements as 'professional apartheid'. He has criticised the Fair Work Commission's decision to deliver a real-wage increase to low-income workers. He has advocated repealing protections for minimum standards for gig economy workers, and he has criticised better wages for frontline workers, aged-care workers and early childhood workers as 'borrowing from future generations'. This is someone who talks about a cost-of-living crisis, but who has opposed every serious measure this government has put in place to raise the wages low- and middle-income Australians.

The shadow Treasurer has universal superannuation a form of economic social engineering and a form of economic insanity, and he has called for the dismantling of universal superannuation. He has railed against paid parental leave, and he has called for the doubling of the GST. When others see social insurance, the shadow Treasurer sees a target list. He has claimed that social housing suffocates the spirit of entrepreneurialism, and said 'our real objective should be not to produce more social housing'. He talks a lot about freedom, but when he talks about freedom what he really means is the freedom from workplace standards, the freedom from progressive taxation, the so-called freedom from public services.

When it comes to some of the pressures that Australians are under in paying their mortgage, it is important to remember the shadow Treasurer's track record on interest rates. On 10 November 2020, he said 'nobody wins from low interest rates'. On 23 October 2019 he said, 'At the beginning of this term I deliberately communicated my concern about the Reserve Bank continuing to cut interest rates.' On 27 February 2018, he said 'we need to create the policy settings to progressively increase interest rates', and went on to say 'money is too cheap'. So when Australians are considering what they're paying on the mortgage, they should remember that this shadow Treasurer is a shadow Treasurer who has championed increasing interest rates. He has invested in a fund which pays off when the Australian economy does badly, and he has said that he wants Australians to be paying higher interest rates.

This Labor government has been very clear about what we are doing in order to deal with the war overseas and the impact that that is having on Australian fuel prices. Our strategy comes in three areas. First, we're coordinating supply. We've put in place a fuel security coordinator, Anthea Harris, who will work with state and territory counterparts in order to coordinate supply and unblock bottlenecks. This builds on work that we have done since coming to office in maintaining sovereign refining capability through the fuel security services payment, investing a billion dollars in low-carbon liquid fuels so our refiners can modernise and make more fuels here, and bringing diesel storage across the country to over 3.7 billion litres with over 90 diesel terminals.

Second, we're releasing fuel from the national fuel stockpile. We've released 20 per cent of those fuel reserves in order to deal with shortages which are being driven by spikes in demand. Let's be very clear: Australia has as much fuel here as we had before bombing started in the Middle East. We are currently holding more than 1.6 billion litres of petrol, more than 800 million litres of jet fuel and more than 2.7 billion litres of diesel. This is a dramatically better position than Australia was in under the former coalition government, when four fuel refineries closed during the Leader of the Opposition's time as energy minister, in which he put our fuel reserves in Texas.

Third, we are cracking down on anticompetitive conduct. We have seen the ACCC announce that they are carrying out an investigation against four major fuel companies. Last month they secured a $16 million fine against Mobil for making false or misleading representations about fuel. The ACCC has called the fuel companies to an urgent meeting to explain their pricing conduct. The ACCC has more resources than ever before and, under the chair of Gina Cass-Gottlieb, has done work to ensure that they are focusing on fuel supply. They are ramping up fuel monitoring, reporting weekly and taking a focus on unusual price spikes, ensuring that motorists are not taken for mugs.

Those three measures—coordinating supply, releasing fuel and cracking down on anticompetitive conduct—see Australia in a dramatically better position to address the challenges that are emanating from the Middle East. Our government has been clear with those parties to the conflict. We have expressed our view to the United States that it is time to wind down this conflict, with the principal objective of reducing the risk of Iran creating a nuclear weapon having been achieved. In this government's view, it is time to bring the conflict to an end. That is in the interests of all countries. We have also been very clear with Iran that its conduct in attacking neighbouring countries is utterly unacceptable, and we have worked with those neighbouring countries, particularly the UAE, where there are 24,000 Australians, in order to provide a Wedgetail aircraft and to work to ensure the safety of people in those regions.

We were not notified of this conflict before it began. We are not a party to this conflict, but it is having a clear impact on Australians. When the global oil price goes up, Australia's fuel prices go up. No Australian government can insulate Australian drivers from the impact of international fuel prices. What we can do is coordinate supply, release fuel from the stockpiles which sit here in Australia and crack down on anticompetitive conduct. What we need to see from those opposite is less posturing and more patriotism, and a commitment to put Australians first, not fearmongering like their friends in One Nation.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to give the call to the member of the opposition, but I'm going to require less interjection.

Simon Kennedy (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Unfortunately, right now, right across Australia, inflation is running riot, and Australian consumers and Australian businesses are paying the price. Today I heard a story of a business owner worried about self-harm because he risks losing his business because of the increase in fuel costs. I met a woman in Sans Souci in my electorate in tears, losing her house because she can't make the interest repayments. These are the many stories, the many faces, of this cost-of-living crisis right across Australia—people who don't have a voice, who don't have a voice in this parliament, who can't stand up and change these circumstances. But us in this building, we do. We do have a voice. We can do something about it.

Prior to this fuel crisis, Australia was not well-positioned. We had the highest inflation of any advanced economy in the world. Australians rightly expect a national government should be sheltering them, protecting them from external shocks. Instead, Treasurer Chalmers has left the Australian people, the Australian business owners, flailing in the wind with the highest inflation in the advanced world, more than the US, more than the UK, more than the EU, more than Japan, more than Canada, more than any other advanced nation. We're out there flailing in the wind for this fuel shock to come along and hit us, and it's going to hit us harder than any of those countries because of where this Treasurer has left us. And what has he done in his time? He's increased government spending to a 40-year high, the highest that it has ever been since 1986 outside the pandemic. The Reserve Bank Governor herself admitted that this is adding pressure to inflation and interest rates. This is contributing to that poor man I heard talking about self-harm for his trucking business.

Kristy McBain (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How do we help?

Simon Kennedy (Cook, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How do we help? That's a really good question. I'll take the interjection on how we help because yesterday we asked the energy minister about fuel. We said, 'Can you explain the fuel reserves in South Australia, Northern Territory and Tasmania?' Instead of actually answering where the shortages were, the energy minister cut short his answer, never answered the question, said 'I'm done' and sat down. Well, I was pleased that overnight someone gave the energy minister those numbers so he was able to report them. The president of the IAA said this week that this is going to be a fuel crisis worse than what we saw in the 1970s. You would think the energy minister himself would know the numbers of shortages in SA, in Tasmania, in the Northern Territory. He could not answer the question. Today in question time he was asked about demand rationing. He said, 'Well, someone will be appointed to look at a national strategy.' What does he think his job is? Who's going to be appointed? We need the energy minister to lead and look at this demand rationing.

While inflation is just burning down Australia, fuel is in everything. It's in food. It's in agribusinesses, where they need diesel to plant seeds and harvest crops. It's in freight, in agriculture, in construction, in concrete, and in cars getting Australian mums and dads around. Yet right now we have over 400 petrol stations out, with an energy minister who 24 hours ago could not tell us where those outages were. Energy markets are up 40 per cent. This minister has lost control. He's lost control of energy. He's lost control of fuel. It's like a runaway train and he has no idea how to get it back on track.

We live in perhaps the most energy-abundant country in the world. We have oil. We have the world's largest deposits of uranium. We have solar and wind, some of the best resources. We have gas, uranium and coal. So why don't you explain to me—

Opposition members interjecting—

I'll take the interjection. Why don't you explain to me why we have some of the highest energy prices in the OECD? Why is that the case? I don't hear anything. I hear crickets. I hear those opposite talking about five years ago when we were in government. Well, we live in one of the most abundant nations in the world. The proof that this minister does not understand markets: 97 times before the last election, he stood there in front of Australians and said, 'Energy prices will go down $275.' Well, there's only one thing; he does not understand how energy markets work, be it electricity, be it oil, be it gas or be it petrol. And unfortunately, men like that man who's worried about losing his business are paying the price. (Time expired)

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This gives me an opportunity to set a few facts straight in this debate. It is disappointing to hear the dribble of the second speaker on this MPI that we've just heard. I say 'dribble', and he's still dribbling as he sits there. If you want to be in government, smarten up your arguments, have some facts, have a bit of detail, understand how markets work and understand how fuel excise works.

Let's deal with a few facts. Fact: the Middle East conflict has caused real disruption. There is no disagreement with that. It was a war started not by us. It'll be a war ended not by us. But we in Australia, a smart, responsible government, will work with industry, work with community, work with our allies and work with international partners on how we can best manage this crisis. That's what responsible governments do. They don't fearmonger. They don't make up nonsense. They don't create misinformation campaigns like we are seeing from the people who claim to be the alternative government.

When it comes to the fuel shortages, as established by industry in Australia and by what we're seeing in the regions, it is a spike in demand. That is what we are seeing in regional Australia—people buying more fuel than they usually would. In my own electorate of Bendigo, we've had a few places where they have run low on fuel. When you talk to the people that work in these stations, they tell you straight out that it's demand. We get one truck coming through a week, and that's usually all we need. But we've had more customers than we usually would. It's simple markets—supply and demand. You would think the Liberal Party would understand that and respect that fundamental basic principle of economics, yet they've thrown economics out the window for a cheap political point.

Another point about fuel stocks in regional Australia: before this conflict, it was not uncommon to go to petrol stations in Castlemaine or other parts of my electorate where you would see 'out of order' on one of the pumps, and you would ask people, 'Why is that one out of order?' The answer: 'Because nobody buys that fuel here in Castlemaine, so they just don't stock it.' When you're talking about pumps out of fuel, do we know what context it's in? Not all pumps in all regional service stations supply all the possible fuels, because there just aren't the customers for it.

I stand here and say I feel for our farmers who are going into harvest and who are excited about what this harvest could look like. We've had early rain and it looks like it will be a good growing season. When they go to the pump only to see, to their frustration, that their neighbours have stockpiled, it is a hard thing to swallow. I say to those people in the regions again: only buy what you need. Do not stockpile. It is dangerous to stockpile. I cannot stress this enough. Filling up jerry cans and keeping them in your garage is not safe. This is not like toilet paper in COVID. Toilet paper won't catch fire being kept in your bathroom; that isn't a health and safety risk. There's also the amount of time you can store petrol for. It is unsafe to store petrol in jerry cans for long periods if it's not something you usually do. I encourage people to not stockpile, to think of others and to make sure they're only buying what they need.

Further to what has been raised around the fuel excise—and I think this is an important point to raise in this debate—it's sugar-hit politics to say, 'Let's just cut the fuel excise.' I was here when those opposite did it, and, first of all, not all of the cut in the fuel excise was passed on; not everybody got it. First and foremost, we don't control, when we cut the fuel excise, how much the companies pass on; there's no obligation to do so. Also, the fuel excise is a measure by which we help pay for our roads infrastructure. We've collected a fuel excise tax since Federation, since we've had this parliament. It is one of the clear ways we fund upgrades. To those opposite: when you have a crack about road infrastructure, remember that you also stood in this place and called for cuts to the fuel excise.

Mary Aldred (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

While we're on the topic of jerry cans, I'll tell the House a story about a dairy farmer I was speaking with last week who's in dire straits. He's a dairy farmer with a herd of about 800 cows, and he's got a regular fuel order for his farm. It wasn't being delivered, so he was making about six trips with his jerry can into town every day. Do you know what happens when you run out of fuel on a dairy farm? You can't feed your animals, and that invites really serious animal welfare concerns. This guy was seriously stressed to the max. This crisis is not just exhausting the fuel reserves and the financial reserves but exhausting the mental and emotional reserves of farming and regional communities like mine. They do not need a lecture right now. They need empathy, and they need action.

This is a tale about timing. Australian farmers have been hit at the worst possible moment, and this government is not helping. After years of dry conditions and uncertainty, many grain growers across southern Australia finally caught a break. Early autumn rain delivered what should have been the foundation of a strong winter cropping season. The soil has moisture, the paddocks are ready, and the opportunity is there. But, just as farmers move in to sow their crops, as the tractors roll and as the seed goes into the ground, they are being hit with a double blow that they cannot control—fuel shortages, fertiliser shortages, and, in some cases, no supply at all. Farmers are telling us plainly, 'We need fuel to plant the crop, we need fertiliser to feed the crop, and right now we can't be sure we'll have either.'

I am talking to farmers every second day who are having to make a choice between buying fertiliser and fuel, and the ramifications of either choice are profound and will be long term. It's not just a farming issue. It's a national risk because, if farmers cannot plant, Australia cannot produce. When Australia cannot produce, every Australian pays the price. In my electorate of Monash, this is not abstract. This is not a debate. This is not theoretical. This is real life, and it is having profound consequences every day. Farmers are paying through the roof for diesel, if they can get it, and incredibly they're dealing with fuel theft as well. I spoke to a number of farmers last week who have had holes drilled in their fuel tanks. I've got farmers sleeping on their property to guard what little supply they have left. Think about that—the people who grow our food are being forced to act as security guards in the middle of the night just to protect the fuel they need to do their job. The pressure is not just physical; it's mental and emotional because farmers are being forced into impossible decisions at the worst possible time. This government is not acting with urgency, understanding or empathy.

Do you plant the full crop and risk not having enough fuel to finish the job? Do you cut back on fertiliser and risk your yield? Do you delay and miss the window entirely? In agriculture, as the member, my good friend the member for Nicholls, knows well, timing is everything. You don't get a second chance at sowing. You don't get to press pause and come back later. If you miss the window, the opportunity is gone.

Global instability might be a factor, but the failure of this government to secure adequate fuel supply is making it worse, and that is a fact. It is a reality. It's exposing just how fragile our supply chains have become. It is leaving regional communities like Shepparton, Warragul and Leongatha in my electorate at the back of the queue, and it is pushing up the cost of living across the entire community. Fuel does not just power tractors. It powers freight, it powers production, and it powers the movement of every single good across this country. When fuel becomes scarce and expensive, guess what? Everything becomes more expensive. That cost flows through to Australian families on everyday products.

Grain is at the centre of this. Grain feeds livestock. Grain feeds supply chains. Grain feeds Australia. If crops do not go into the ground now, there will be less production later—less wheat, less feed and less supply—and that means higher prices at the checkout, not because farmers are profiting but because they are being squeezed. They deserve better. Australian families deserve better from this federal government.

Ali France (Dickson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the somewhat warped MPI move by the member for Goldstein. I really thank him for it because I love talking about Labor's cost-of-living measures, and I'm really happy to inform those opposite about our national fuel reserve in Australia, something that those opposite could never do.

We all know global conflict is disrupting fuel supply chains, and this government is acting. We've released a fifth of our fuel reserves and directed that fuel to areas with shortages. We've temporarily allowed lower quality fuel that was destined for export to be used in Australia, enabling an extra 100 million litres of fuel to areas of need. We're also supporting Australian refineries to produce more domestically. Our new fuel supply taskforce is working directly with states and territories to make sure fuel gets to where it is needed most. We are cracking down on petrol price gouging, doubling penalties for companies that try to profit at the expense of Australian families to $100 million. We've taken real action on fuel security and are responding to global changes.

Unlike those opposite, we are actually delivering. Those opposite left us a dire inheritance: fuel insecurity, record debt, a housing crisis, energy uncertainty and a healthcare system under serious strain. We now have a national fuel reserve in Australia because, when we came to government, we established one. In 2023, we introduced new rules requiring Australia's two remaining refineries and major importers to hold baseline stocks of fuel onshore. Prior to that, the coalition, under the direction of the opposition leader, held our fuel reserves in Texas, not Australia. Those opposite also presided over the closure of four of Australia's remaining six refineries while in government. Your record on fuel security was appalling and put our country and primary producers at risk.

The member for Goldstein moved this motion, so let's move onto his record and the record of those opposite on cost of living. It's no secret that the member for Goldstein, the new shadow Treasurer, supports privatising Medicare and has talked about patients taking on the financial burden of public health care. Here's a translation: the member for Goldstein wants patients to pay more. Let's not forget their $600 billion nuclear plan that would take 20 years to build and push up household electricity bills by hundreds of dollars.

Unlike those opposite, we are delivering real cost-of-living relief for Aussies. It is our No. 1 priority. We're cutting taxes for every Australian taxpayer, with another round of tax cuts taking effect on 1 July and again the following year. We've delivered increases in the minimum wage and major pay rises for workers in feminised industries. We've provided energy bill relief and taken 30 per cent off home batteries. Over 1,700 homes and businesses in Dickson alone have taken up that battery discount. Those opposite called it elitist.

On Medicare, we have delivered the single largest investment ever, $8.5 billion, for bulk-billing and more GPs and $1.8 billion in extra hospital funding. On housing, we have an ambitious $45 billion plan to build 1.2 million homes, despite those opposite blocking our housing legislation along with the Greens. Right now, 153 new social and affordable homes are being built in Joyner, in my community, as part of our $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund. We're delivering tax cuts, higher wages, cheaper medicines, better health care and more housing—real relief. Those opposite oppose nearly every single one of these measures. On this side of the House, we are focused on fuel security and delivering cost-of-living relief. Those opposite have literally done everything in their power to make it tougher for everyday Aussies. I urge those opposite to be patriotic—to back Aussies, not work against us.

Sam Birrell (Nicholls, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Earlier today, I did what a lot of us enjoy doing, which is talking to a group of grade 6 students who are visiting Canberra. One young girl, whose family farms out in the Dookie region, which is in the eastern part of my electorate, said: 'The fuel issue is really hitting us because Dad put an order in for diesel three weeks ago, and, without that diesel, he can't sow his crops. We're starting to get worried.' We had a discussion about it, and it occurred to me that this grade 6 student understands the fuel crisis in Australia better than the Minister for Climate Change and Energy.

We are at a point in broadacre farming where farmers are about to sow their crops—I'm sure the member for O'Connor, who's from one of the great cropping regions of this country, will talk about this. They will probably sow with fertilisers called MAP and DAP, and most of them are saying they've got enough of those. They are worried about the supply of diesel. Western Australian farming groups say that they'll probably need about 35 litres of diesel per hectare for the crop cycle—that's sowing, spraying, putting out some urea and then harvesting. They're really worried about where that fuel is going to come from and where the fertiliser is going to come from.

These are people who don't talk in the way that we talk in Canberra, where we say 'we're focused on', 'we're working with', and, 'We're considering options.' These are people who, if they don't work their businesses and judge their businesses on results, go broke. They don't say, 'we're working with'. They don't say, 'we're focused on'. They say: 'If I don't get diesel, I can't put my crop in. If I don't get urea, I won't get the yields to make growing a crop profitable.' They're judging the minister on what they see on the ground. 'Is my delivery of diesel turning up or not? Is there a service station in regional Australia that has got fuel or not?' As we heard today, there are over 400 service stations in regional Australia that do not have fuel. I'm happy that the minister's focused. I'm happy that he's telling us that 'he's working with'. He will have achieved something when those farmers get their delivery of diesel and when those service stations have fuel in the pump. That's when he can claim success, and I look forward to that happening.

This is a real problem for Australian families because I don't think people understand how important the food supply chain is in this country. I've just come from the NFF Horticulture Council, who've told me that the cost and the supply of diesel is affecting their harvest operations of, for example, avocados and bananas and is making those unviable. But, even if you can get the crop off, the diesel that you need to get it to market—some of this stuff is grown in North Queensland and some of it in Western Australia—is not arriving, or it's too expensive.

I understand that there are global supply shocks, but the minister has told us that there is not a supply problem in Australia. I said in a 90-second statement last week that I take him at his word at that, but the distribution issue has not been sorted out. I'm failed to be convinced that the minister's doing everything in his power to sort that distribution problem out, because people are ringing us and emailing us saying: 'I can't get fuel. I can't get the delivery of fuel. I can't go down to the service station and fill up.'

When Australian families go to the supermarkets, even if they do drive electric vehicles to get there, and they start to see shelves that don't have food on them, they will understand how significant this fuel issue is for the agricultural sector. If we don't get fertiliser, we will see how significant this issue is in relation to a lot of the grain that we export. I was talking to some farming groups this morning about the Asian countries that rely on that grain. We are a great exporter of food, but we can't do it without diesel and we can't do it without fertiliser, and I'm not convinced that the minister is taking this seriously enough and doing everything he can to ensure that the diesel and fertiliser supply and therefore the food issue is being sorted out. (Time expired)

Matt Gregg (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

While I don't agree with every word the member for Nicholls used, I appreciate that he is taking this issue seriously. That's in stark contrast to the mover of this motion, who spent a whole lot of minutes talking on a range of subjects, effectively providing us with his stump speech once again, but not touching on the very real issue and very serious issue of fuel supply.

Australians are following events in the Middle East closely, and they are very much seeing and feeling the consequences when they go to the pump. The longer the conflict in the Middle East goes, I fear the more significant the impact will be on the global economy and on people in all of our electorates. Ensuring our farmers, our regional communities and the services—and, indeed, all the goods—all Australians rely on can continue to be accessed requires us to ensure that all levels of the supply chain have access to the fuel they need.

Across the board, the Albanese government has been working through and planning for the impacts of this crisis and protecting Australians from the worst of this global challenge. We have empowered the ACCC to protect motorists from unfair price rises, we have boosted fuel supply by releasing 20 per cent of the baseline minimum stockholding obligation for petrol and diesel, and we're acting to get more fuels into the Australian market by temporarily amending the fuel standards.

Just today, only a short time ago, Minister Bowen informed the House that the Albanese government had temporarily made further changes to the diesel standards, which will help suppliers bring more fuel into the country and provide domestic market access to our farmers, to the truckers and to regional communities. These are incredibly important updates. Australian refineries will now have more flexibility to make diesel and widen the markets from which we can source diesel, including the United States, Canada and Europe, which will allow diesel with lower flashpoints. This will give companies more flexibility and more options to adjust supply chains to manage disruption from the Middle East.

This builds on the range of work this government has been doing to shore up Australia's fuel supply. We're working closely with industry, the states and the territories to ensure that this fuel gets to where it's needed, particularly in regional communities, because we do appreciate the issues raised by the member for Nicholls and the importance of regional communities having access to diesel, particularly as cropping is going on.

Following a meeting of National Cabinet, the Commonwealth has appointed Anthea Harris as Fuel Supply Taskforce Coordinator to support coordination across governments and sectors. If you look at the national fuel emergency response plan, the staged, methodical, well-planned, well-established approach to doing these things, coordinating and leading market-led solutions are the first and second stages. The idea of chucking rumours in about immediate rationing and things like that does not assist an anxious market. It makes it worse. It's rank opportunism and it is almost bordering on a self-fulfilling prophecy, trying to create the very anxiety that causes this supply-demand imbalance that we're seeing around the country.

We know full well that there is no less fuel in Australia than there was a few weeks ago and that there is enough fuel in Australia to meet Australia's needs. But, understandably, at these times people are feeling anxious. They drive past the service station and they see how high the prices are. They know the fuel is available, so they utilise that moment. It's perfectly understandable. I have relatives on farms in the member for Monash's seat. I've got relatives who are tradies and of course I understand where that anxiety comes from. It's completely understandable and I don't judge it, but it isn't assisted by people running around saying, 'Oh! Panic, panic, panic! We're about to have rationing,' and things like that, or even hinting at it.

The only relevant question they should be asking in a national situation like this is: what can we do to help? And we've heard none of that from the opposition. We've had rank political opportunism that serves no-one but themselves. And people will not forget. We will not forget.

This is the time for us to come together and provide fact based information to the hardworking people in our electorates to make sure that we can carry on through this challenge as unscathed as possible. We're not just going to stoke some ridiculous debate devoid of any facts simply to have a little bit of a political edge for one day in question time or to try and treat this as a Facebook video studio so they can just get a little bit of the attention they might be seeking or get a few more followers. This is not the time for that. It's not an election year. There is no need to play these petty little politics.

This is a time for us to come together as mature adults and as leaders to try and assist our communities to get through this as best as possible. It's working with states and territories in a productive way to make sure that the distribution of fuel can be done as effectively and responsibly as possible. It requires a mature group of people working maturely to actually address the challenges that we face now.

We can't control what is happening in the Middle East. There have been incredibly disturbing developments there. We hope that those matters are resolved as quickly as possible, but the Albanese government is doing its job, and so should you.

Rick Wilson (O'Connor, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to have the opportunity to speak on today's matter of public importance. The topic is the failure of the government to secure adequate fuel supplies, pushing up the cost of living across the economy. I want to bring it back to my electorate of O'Connor and how that's impacting there, but I first want to go back to where we were at the start of the Middle East conflict that we're currently experiencing. That was the December quarter. Inflation was up, running at 3.8 per cent nationally, but in Western Australia that number was 4.9 per cent. We were already running at nearly five per cent inflation in O'Connor prior to the Middle East conflict and prior to the almost doubling of fuel prices. I would suspect that across my electorate of O'Connor those numbers would be slightly higher. What that has led to is two hikes in interest rates by the Reserve Bank, which is impacting not only mortgage holders but also small business farmers and those in the mining community who are borrowing money, particularly in the contracting part of the industry. People are borrowing money to buy machinery and other plant equipment. Government spending is running at 40-year highs, at 28 per cent of gross domestic product, which is fuelling this inflation. We've heard that from the Governor of the Reserve Bank.

I'll go back to O'Connor and where we're at today with the impact of the Middle East conflict. I was in the electorate on Friday. I was travelling over to Canberra over the weekend. Fuel prices for diesel, in particular, were well over $3 by that stage, and they've probably increased in the last day or two. What does that mean for the cost of living? For people that live in the electorate of O'Connor, their food, their groceries and their goods have to travel. If you live in Kalgoorlie, it's 600 kilometres from Perth by road. If you live in Esperance, it's 700 kilometres. If you live in Albany, it's 400 kilometres—413 to be exact. All of the trucking operators, because they have to—they have to make a living; they have to make a profit to keep their businesses viable—have put fuel surcharges on that freight. What we're starting to see now is the cost of goods on the supermarket shelf rising. That has a direct impact on people. Obviously when they go and fill up their cars at the service station, they're getting a $40 to $60 extra whack at that point on top of the interest rate rises that we've already talked about.

Looking a bit further ahead, our farming community in the horticultural sector are currently harvesting. They are paying more for their fuel. The trucks to move that produce from, for example, Dom Della's farm at Pemberton to the potato packing plant in Perth—that's a three-hour, 300-kilometre haul. That is adding to the cost of those potatoes, and then they've got to be transported back out to the regions. These are the direct impacts that we're seeing now.

I want to talk a little bit about petrol rationing, which has been discussed here today. The minister has kind of dismissed it as one of the many options on the table. But let me tell you: petrol rationing is happening today in my seat of O'Connor. What is happening is that independent fuel distributors are being cut back to as low as 25 per cent of their normal allocations. That means that, if they've got a range of fuel stations, those fuel stations get 25 per cent. When the minister was asked by me in question time today, 'How many service stations have run out of fuel?' he reeled off, 'About 400,' but he said that six were in Western Australia. Those numbers are not up to date. What happens is that, if you're a service station, you're getting 25 per cent of your normal allocation. So you've got enough fuel to get going in the morning. When the minister answered that question, it was around midday in WA, and he said there were six service stations across WA that had run out of at least one type of fuel. I can guarantee you that by five o'clock this evening there will be over 100 service stations across my electorate that have run out of their 25 per cent allocation. That is fuel rationing. There is no other way to describe that. The majors are restricting the amount of fuel that they are allowing the independent distributors across my electorate of O'Connor to have on a daily basis.

Carol Berry (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor has always been a party that cares deeply about the impacts of toughening economic conditions on those who are impacted the most. This is fundamental to our cause as a party. As the opposition has shown, it's easy to be reactive, to trot out an empty slogan or to misrepresent the facts to score cheap political points. What's harder and requires more sophistication is to pull the right levers at the right time in a dynamic and challenging geopolitical context. In stark contrast to the assertion made by the member for Goldstein, the Albanese Labor government has taken strong action to secure fuel supply for Australians. We are working with stakeholders across the country to ensure that the right amount of fuel gets to the right parts of the country to respond to what has been a massive surge in demand. This is a responsibility that we take incredibly seriously, and we understand what is at stake.

We've appointed a Fuel Supply Taskforce Coordinator to support coordination between the Commonwealth and state and territory governments on fuel security and supply chain resilience. We are addressing fuel supply chain disruption by releasing up to 20 per cent of the baseline minimum stockholding obligation for petrol and diesel. This allows the release of over 700,000,000 litres of petrol and diesel from Australia's domestic reserves. We've also temporarily amended Australia's fuel quality standards to allow higher sulphur levels for 60 days. This will allow around 100,000,000 litres a month of new petrol supply that would otherwise have been exported to be blended into our existing domestic supply. We've empowered the ACCC to impose fines of up to $100 million for price gouging and uncompetitive behaviour, which sends a very clear signal to anyone engaging in unethical behaviour in this crisis that they will be punished for it. A short time ago, we announced a six-month adjustment to diesel standards that will help suppliers bring more fuel into the domestic market.

We understand that the conflict in the Middle East is causing significant challenges, and we're working as hard as we can to address these challenges as quickly as possible. We understand that we are living in challenging times. When confronted with challenging economic circumstances, our government is doing what Labor governments do best. We're engaged in nation building. We're engaged in implementing reforms to make our society and our economy as fair as possible. As the gap grows globally between the haves and the have nots, it's part of the Labor project to ensure that our society and our economy remain as fair as possible. That means we implement reforms which impact every Australian, Australia-wide, to make our economy as fair as possible. I, for one—and I know this is true for all of my colleagues—will continue to passionately advocate for fairness on behalf of the people of our electorates.

Labor has delivered record investments in public hospitals, public health care and public education because we know that these great systems are also great equalisers. Labor has taken several steps to reduce pressure on households and to improve fairness in our system. When it comes to cost-of-living relief, we're working hard to relieve some of the pressures impacting on families, and we have delivered tax cuts for every Australian taxpayer, cheaper medicines for all Australians under the PBS, subsidised child care and record investments to create more housing supply, particularly for those who need that housing the most. We've delivered targeted help for first home owners and for renters. We've increased bulk-billing to reduce the cost of seeing a doctor. We've reduced HECS debts. We've delivered more support for apprentices. We've delivered fee-free TAFE. We've delivered pay rises for those workers who are critical to our society, such as early childhood educators and aged-care workers. We've reduced unemployment, and we've protected penalty rates.

Labor understands this truth: the cost of living isn't just about prices; it's also about wages. The Albanese Labor government has worked to get wages moving again, backing pay rises for low-paid workers, supporting collective bargaining and restoring fairness to workplace laws that have been deliberately weakened. Australians believe deeply in health care and ensuring that education and a range of our systems, like aged care, need to deliver. They need to work for all Australians, and we're passionate about delivering fairness for all Australians.

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The discussion has concluded.