Alison Penfold (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Anna, a single mum from Croydon Park in the Prime Minister's electorate, told 2GB this morning, 'I was driving my kids to their sports carnival today, panicking, driving past five fuel stations with no fuel. What do I do if there's no fuel? What if my kids get sick and I can't pick them up?' When will the Prime Minister finally take action to ensure fuel gets to his own constituents?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Lyne for her question. Indeed, the comments from Anna in Croydon Park, of course, are real, because people out there are facing a difficult circumstance. The government acknowledges that. We don't come in here and say there's not a war. We don't come in here and say there aren't issues of distribution. What we do is come in here and put forward practical plans to make a difference. That is the responsible thing to do. That is what the then Morrison government did during the difficulties of COVID, backed by the then opposition. At a time when there are international factors that have an impact, it is the responsible thing to do to work together, as we are with industry and as we are with state and territory governments. Indeed, the comments of those opposite, whether it be Senator Canavan, the latest Leader of the Nationals—obviously, our prices will be impacted by the world price—or whether it be the—

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

The Prime Minister will pause. The member for Lyne, on a point of order?

Alison Penfold (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On relevance—the question did not relate to anything that the opposition has said. It's about what action has been taken to get fuel to his own constituents.

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

The type of question was a question regarding a topic. The Prime Minister has addressed multiple parts of the question in terms of his answer. He's obviously reading some comments on the topic he was asked about from the party that asked it, as well. If there is a relevant point of order regarding relevance, the Prime Minister's got to make his remarks relevant—whether he's quoting a leader or another member of the House or the Senate—to what he was asked about. At this stage he's doing that, but I'm going to listen carefully to make sure that he is.

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

I would like to be clear, though: just because the member is a member of the National Party—

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

Resume your seat. That's why I followed my comments with what I said. I said, yes, if he's commenting on a leader or a member, regarding the member's party or leader, he's got to make his remarks relevant to the question that he was asked by that member. It's a fairly commonsense thing, I would suggest.

The Prime Minister in continuation, and he'll make his remarks directly relevant.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also refer to my previous answer, where I outlined all of the measures that the government has taken, which are all about assisting Anna from Croydon Park and assisting, indeed, constituents wherever they are around Australia. But the idea that the context doesn't matter, that we can just wish away the impact that this is having right around the world, is of course absurd. That is what has been recognised across the board by members of the member for Lyne's own party. The member for Page said, 'I'd stress to people not necessarily to do that panic buying.' 'We obviously have reserve supplies' is what he went on to say. 'We're all hoping for an early conclusion to this conflict.' That is what the member for Page had to say, and he was right.

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

Order! The member for Page is warned.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of the many former leaders of the National Party over there also said: 'The big message for every Australian is: don't panic; the supplies are there. We all have a role to play in that—to stick to our normal daily operations and schedules and don't think that we have to always be topping up. The fuel is coming.' That was the responsible former leader once removed of the National Party. The former National Party leader twice removed said a similar thing when he said, 'People just need to calm themselves down.'

This government will continue to operate in an orderly way because that's how you get things done. (Time expired)

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

Order! The member for Bowman will leave the chamber under 94(a). Interjecting 13 times in four questions is way too many times.

Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. How is the Albanese Labor government acting to get fuel where it needs to go?

Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank my friend and very valued neighbour and south-west Sydney colleague, the member for Werriwa, for the question. As the Prime Minister has indicated, supply to our country does remain strong. Of the six ships that we informed the nation had been cancelled on the weekend, all have been replaced with alternative supplies from alternative countries and at least three other spot cargo offers have been confirmed and are on their way to Australia. That's a good thing. And our two refineries are working full pelt with all their production exclusively for Australian use, and that is certainly the way it should be in this situation.

That is not to say—as the government has always recognised—that there aren't real shortages, particularly in regional areas, that need to be addressed. What we're dealing with are a couple of things, and it's important to run through them for the House. We saw demand increase very dramatically and we saw suppliers, not unreasonably and, in fact, lawfully and legally, making sure that they supplied petrol to the people who had orders in advance—that is, people on contract. People in the spot market have not been able to be supplied at the same rate, as those contracts are honoured in the first instance—those people who ordered petrol in advance under the contract system. But we have been working very hard, and I do want to take this opportunity to say that there are a lot of people working hard at the moment. People in refineries, truckies, people in my department and people in state departments are working very hard—long hours—to try and see these shortages addressed. On behalf of the government, I want to say thank you to them.

I can report to the House that today Ampol has advised me about, for example, their year-on-year supplies to regional Australia and their supplies to independent distributors. For example, supplies in March this year compared to March last year are 40 per cent higher to independent suppliers in regional New South Wales, 33 per cent higher in regional Queensland, 66 per cent higher in South Australia, 22 per cent higher in Tasmania, 19 per cent higher in Victoria and 64 per cent higher in Western Australia. That's Ampol's supplies to independent distributors. Their supplies, in total, including to their own retail outlets, are up, for example, 34 per cent in New South Wales and up 44 per cent in South Australia—I would have thought members from regional South Australia would welcome that—and are up 27 per cent in total. That does not mean there aren't shortages, as we're dealing with the increased demand and with recovering as the supply chain recovers, as it had to during COVID. In so many instances, when you get a big increase in demand, it takes time for the supply chain to recover to backfill the existing demand. But the fact that that supply to regional Australia is up substantially shows that the measures this government has put in place with industry, and in working closely in collaboration with the states, are seeing real progress, which is what Australians so desperately deserve and are receiving.

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

My question is to Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Despite the answer from the Minister for Energy and Climate Change, we're actually being contacted now by funeral homes that can't get fuel and certainly by farmers. Does the minister for agriculture see any impediments for the production, processing and transport of crucial food, crucial groceries, to metropolitan supermarkets? And, if you do see any problems, what is your contingency plan?

Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member opposite. I also want to thank all of my colleagues behind me who have been representing farmers and primary producers, and talking to me about some of the challenges that they have been hearing in their electorate. We do acknowledge that there are challenges, particularly for our farmers, our fishers and our primary producers, which is why I'm meeting with them on a regular basis to hear directly from them about what is happening on the ground and so that we can address the challenges that they are experiencing.

As I have said in this place, we are working with them in terms of fertiliser. As you would be well aware, we can produce enough food in this country to more than feed the Australian people, which is why we currently export around 80 per cent of our primary produce, in terms of value. The member opposite shouldn't be panicking people when it comes to food supply in this country. We will continue to work with our farmers in relation to fuel and fertiliser. Our government has already taken action, as the minister and the Prime Minister have outlined.

Alice Jordan-Baird (Gorton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to secure our fuel supply and how are we keeping our transport industry strong during this fuel spike? What has been the response?

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Gorton for her question and also thank her for her advocacy for a great freight route, the Western Highway, that runs right along the spine of both of our electorates. This morning I again met with representatives from the transport and fuel sector. We are ensuring that government, industry, suppliers and unions are operating from the same information so that, when we need to move quickly, we can.

As a government, we have so far released 20 per cent of the minimum stockholding obligation for petrol and diesel, particularly directing it to regional communities. We've appointed the Fuel Supply Task Force Coordinator, Anthea Harris, to work with states and industry to ensure fuel keeps flowing to where it is needed. We've amended the fuel standards for petrol and now the flashpoint for diesel to make sure that we can get more supply onto the market. We've passed legislation—just before!—in the House to strengthen the ACCC's hand, and we continue to monitor airlines and airfares closely. We're working with regional partners like Singapore and Korea to shore up supplies, strengthen our energy security and support the flow of essential goods. The PM, of course, will hold another National Cabinet on the fuel supply, to ensure that we're getting that coordinated response right the way across the country, on Monday.

We said we would move quickly to introduce to the House changes to the Fair Work Act to ensure that our truck drivers and our logistics companies can quickly renegotiate their rates with Australia's major retailers. And today we moved to do just that, because our freight industry cannot bear the cost of increased fuel prices alone, because a strong transport sector ensures our food moves from our farms to our tables, goods from warehouses to our shopfronts and fuel from our refineries to our petrol bowsers. To ensure that the transport industry remains strong, they need to have the levers to adjust quickly to what we know is a changing environment.

Our amendments have been welcomed by the Australian Trucking Association, National Road Freighters Association, Road Transport Association and the TWU. They told us they were vital and urgent, but we know who didn't seem to welcome the urgency of these amendments. It was those opposite. When this was brought up for debate today, their argument was that they couldn't possibly support a quicker contract chain order, because we were moving too fast. The member for Cook said that he'd spoken to a couple of trucking companies who are worried about going insolvent, and then he and his Liberal colleagues literally, again, scuttled out of this chamber instead of voting for these changes that the trucking industry have called as being urgent.

The Leader of the Opposition, who's been busy there interjecting, couldn't even be bothered to turn up for the debate at all. Our parliament has been asked to act to support the trucking industry. They might have a lot of people with 'leader' in their title over there opposite, but they are surely lacking in leadership when it comes to what is an important issue for our truck industry. (Time expired)

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

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. How many service stations in Australia are currently out of fuel, will the minister commit to publicly releasing daily updates of individual service stations that have run out of fuel and, if not, why not?

Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

New South Wales today has 178 with no diesel, 48 with a total stock out. Queensland has 55 with no diesel, 33 with no regular unleaded. Victoria has 45 with no diesel, down 20, and 72 with no unleaded, down 70. South Australia has nine with no diesel, 10 with no unleaded. Western Australia has 40 with no diesel, 14 with no unleaded. Tasmania has five with no diesel and nine with some sort of outage. No outages in the Northern Territory are attributable to a lack of fuel supply. In the ACT, currently, there are two with no diesel and one with no unleaded. But, as I said yesterday, I'm advised that these shortages in the ACT are typically dealt with within the hour.

Now, I will continue, as appropriate, to be giving the Australian people updates as I have done for the last month, as do state premiers. This data is collected primarily by the states. The Commonwealth data is shared with the states regularly. The states share data with me regularly, and of course premiers are providing daily updates as well.