Michelle Landry (Capricornia, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy. Given the minister's advice today that more than 500 petrol stations are without at least one type of fuel across Australia, can the minister guarantee that Australians planning to travel to the regions to see their families over Easter will be able to fill up their cars to come home? And why won't the minister commit to daily updates of individual service stations that have run out of fuel?

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

I thank the honourable member for her question and I reiterate the figures I revealed earlier in question time. For example, Ampol's distribution to regional Queensland, which is up very substantially, year on year, shows that the entire industry is working hard to catch up with the massive spike in demand that we saw after 28 February. I would have thought the honourable member would welcome that increase in supply and recognise that it is working, and will work, to deal with those shortages, which we all agree are unacceptable. As I've said, there are so many people working so hard across government and across industry, collaboratively, to see this dealt with. That is helpful.

I will tell the House what is unhelpful—not recognising that Australia's fuel supply is secure, not accepting the fact that the ships that have been cancelled have been replaced and misleading Australians that somehow some of the fuel from our refineries is being exported at the moment, which just isn't true, and linking it somehow to net zero. That is all untrue and unhelpful. This is a time for the nation to come together. We'll be working hard—we are working hard and have been working hard—to ensure that Australians have access to fuel not only over Easter, which the honourable member just asked me about, but—

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

The Manager of Opposition Business, on a point of order.

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

It's a very specific question. It asks for a guarantee and whether you will provide public data about individual service stations. Why the needless secrecy?

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

Resume your seat. The Leader of the House.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll just raise again that it now has to be deliberate from the Manager of Opposition Business to continually take points of order and to pretend to the House that not all of the elements of a question were part of the question when he's raising points of order on direct relevance.

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

The manager is entitled to raise his point of order and he's doing his job, but I ask him to, when he's doing his job, ensure that the standing orders are being followed. The minister was mid-flight when he was talking about Easter. He was specifically asked about the petrol supplies during Easter and what he was doing about that. It's very difficult, and I give some leeway to the manager because of the position he has, but I ask all members to respect the standing orders. You can't pick and choose which part of the question you think has or hasn't been answered; it's always been done in a total environment.

I'll make sure the manager is respected with his points of order. I'm going to make sure the minister is also respected with his answer, because he is being directly relevant to the question that he was asked, and I'll ask him to continue.

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

I was making the point that the government has been working not just in the lead-up to Easter. We will continue to work in the lead-up to Easter and, of course, we'll all be working during Easter, with the industry, to make sure that's the case.

In relation to updates, I've provided updates in the House each day. No doubt I'll do that next week. No doubt I'll be active in the public over the weekend. I'll be answering questions as I have done on many days since 28 February. I will also point out that premiers are doing the same. That's a good thing. Premier Minns is providing a daily update on service station closures in his state. That's appropriate. There are information-gathering powers in his state, and I welcome the action he's taken. I do point out that every single state runs a service station website which has information available to the public. There was a chance, a few years ago, to have a national website; the Liberal Party opposed that. That's okay. The states are providing very useful updates, as is the Commonwealth.