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

My question is to the Prime Minister. The CEO of Ageing Australia, Tom Symondson, has said that due to the national fuel crisis, we are seeing an increase in workers not taking up shifts. Why is the Prime Minister always the last to lead in a national crisis?

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

Order! The member for Bowman. Order! The Minister for Social Services. When the House comes to order, Prime Minister will have the call.

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

I thank the member for her question. What we have done is to convene National Cabinet for a second time today. We'll continue to meet. We've agreed a national fuel security plan with premiers and chief ministers. We've announced halving the fuel excise for three months, reducing the cost of fuel. We've announced a reduction in the heavy-vehicle road user charge to zero and deferred the next increase by six months. We've introduced new legislation today so the Commonwealth can underwrite shiploads of fuel, fertiliser and other essentials. This is something that is an unprecedented action which we have taken, and that comes after the other measures that we've taken—the Fair Work Commission laws that the minister just spoke about, demanding that companies pay truckies fairly when fuel prices spike, and the new laws to double penalties for petrol companies for price gouging. We've begun the release of 20 per cent of Australia's fuel reserves. We've changed petrol and diesel standards so there can be more fuel flowing into our market. We appointed a national Fuel Supply Taskforce coordinator. That group, with state and territory equivalents, has met twice and will meet twice weekly.

We've tasked the ACCC to ramp up fuel price monitoring and to issue on-the-spot fines. We've made it easier for Australia's refineries to access government funding when they run at a loss. We've engaged with international partners to keep supplies flowing—including the joint statement I made with Singapore, but we've also engaged with leaders in Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, China, all of our international partners. We've engaged with states and territories on supply and distribution, including through the energy ministers meeting that's been convened. We've activated the National Coordination Mechanism, which has met twice. We've unlocked $2 million in financial counselling funding for impacted farmers.

We'll continue to do what we can in circumstances which are real. You can't just wish away the impact of a war in the Middle East that has seen global fuel supplies be reduced. But we've continued to act each and every day, and some have been cooperative and supportive. I want to give a shout-out to industries in particular that we've worked with, and state and territory governments across the political spectrum today were productive as well. Had we not had the largest fuel reserves in 15 years, and had we continued to have our fuel reserves in the United States rather than here, the predicament would have been far worse. (Time expired)