Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

With today being the last sitting day in March, I want to take a moment to reflect on what has been an incredibly busy and productive month in this place. When I look back at everything we've achieved, one theme stands above the rest for our government, and that is delivery. Delivery is what happens when you have a government, with adults at the table, focused on our communities—a government that looks and sounds like Australia, a government that is committed to ensuring that no-one is held back and no-one is left behind in our pursuit of a better future for all Australians.

This month we've delivered real practical support to Australians. We know that global uncertainty is putting pressure on households. Conflict overseas is driving up fuel prices. Inflation has stretched family budgets, and every Australian feels it when they fill up their car, drop the kids off at school, pay their bills or do their weekly shop. So we've acted. We've halved the fuel excise for three months to make petrol and diesel cheaper right now. We've released 20 per cent of Australia's fuel reserves to stabilise supply. We've temporarily adjusted fuel standards to keep more fuel flowing. We've appointed a national fuel supply taskforce coordinator to ensure coordination across the country. Australians deserve relief when they need it most. We've doubled penalties for petrol companies engaging in price gouging because there is simply no excuse for exploiting Australians, especially during a crisis. That's not the way we do things here; that's not the Australian way. Our government will always stand up for consumers.

While we're standing up for consumers, we're also backing Australian workers. This month we've supported a real wage increase for around 2.7 million minimum wage and award reliant workers. These are the Australians who keep our economy moving—people who are often in lower paid roles, often working fewer hours, and people who tend to get hit hardest by cost-of-living pressures. Since coming to office, our support for real wage growth has already delivered over $9,000 in cumulative increases for minimum wage workers. That's real money back into the pockets of working Australians. And we've done this responsibly, supporting wage growth while keeping inflation on a downward path and respecting the independence of the Fair Work Commission, because economic management is about helping people today while securing stability for tomorrow. I will never forget standing alongside the now prime minister in the 2022 election campaign when he was asked a question on whether he supported a wage increase for the lowest paid workers in this country, and he said, 'Absolutely.' And he's been absolutely committed, as we all have been in this government, to looking out for the lowest paid workers in the country ever since.

On that theme, I am Chair of the Employment, Workplace Relations, Skills and Training Committee, and we've begun our inquiry into the National Employment Standards. The National Employment Standards govern the minimum entitlements that all Australian workers can access. We've heard from the Fair Work Ombudsman and the department of workplace relations as we determine whether the National Employment Standards are still fit for purpose in 2026, 16 years since they were first implemented. To do that, we need to meet workers where they are. That means holding hearings right across the country, not just here in Canberra, to get direct evidence from people with different perspectives and experiences. This will include employers, industry workers, academics and other stakeholder groups right across the country. I'm very excited this important work is underway and I really want to thank everybody who's taken the time to submit their thoughts to the inquiry.

The Albanese Labor government is delivering tax cuts this year and next so that Australians can keep more of what they earn. We're also making medicines cheaper, we're expanding bulk-billing and we're providing targeted cost-of-living relief without fuelling inflation. That's what responsible government looks like.

We're also delivering for Australia's future. This month we strengthened our economic ties with Europe through a new trade agreement. This will contribute $10 billion annually to our economy. That means more Australian products reaching European markets, more opportunities for Australian businesses and more jobs here at home. And it means cheaper European products at the checkout for Australian consumers. When we open doors for Australian exporters, we create opportunities for Australian workers.

We've also taken action to ensure Australians can retire with dignity. We have boosted superannuation savings for 1.3 million Australians, especially low-income workers, who need it most. This reform reduces tax on super contributions and delivers fairer outcomes, particularly for women, who make up more than half of low-income earners. Every single Australian deserves a secure retirement, and our reforms will ensure that everybody is able to have a dignified and secure retirement.

This month marked International Women's Day, and I am proud to stand as part of a government that is delivering real progress for women. We've helped close the gender pay gap to record lows. We've expanded access to the single parent payment, knowing that it often tends to be women who take on single parenting responsibilities. We've made child care cheaper and we're extending paid parental leave to six months. For the first time, too, we are paying superannuation on that paid parental leave. We've delivered the largest ever women's health package and made record investments to end gender based violence.

Progress for women does not happen by accident. It happens by choice, and our government has made that choice. That's largely been informed, too, by the fact that we have a majority female government and we have different voices sitting around the table. We're able to make these kinds of decisions.

The Albanese Labor government is building a more sustainable and affordable energy future. New data this month shows that, with our 30 per cent discount, Australians have installed 250,000 home batteries. That means 1,667 households in my community of Chisholm are getting cheaper energy through the uptake of the Cheaper Home Batteries Program. This means families can store cheap solar energy during the day and use it at night, cutting their power bills. It also benefits the entire system, reducing pressure on the energy grid and making our network more resilient. Australians know that investing in clean energy is not just good for the environment; it's good for their wallets.

Across every single one of the initiatives I've outlined this afternoon there is a common thread, which is that our government is focused on practical outcomes. Our government is helping Australians manage the cost of living, backing workers with fair pay, strengthening our economy through trade, supporting women and families and securing retirement incomes. We are making commonsense reforms and listening to advocates, and we are building a cleaner, more resilient energy system.

There are a number of other measures we've taken over the last month that we've been here in Canberra, including taking important steps to protect Australians from discrimination based on their genetic information. Through reforms to strengthen genetic testing in life insurance, we are ensuring that Australians can access vital medical testing without fear that it will be used against them, because no-one should have to choose between their health and their financial security.

This is what our communities expect of us—to stand here every day we're in Canberra and fight for good outcomes for them. I know that my community expects a government that takes responsibility—a government that steps up in times of challenge and delivers, not a government that just promises. What we've seen this month demonstrates exactly that. That's what our government is focused on doing.

I really can't wait to be back in my community of Chisholm though, after a long month here in Canberra, and I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very safe and very happy Easter, particularly those communities of faith for whom this is a very important celebration. For all of those workers who will be working over Easter, you absolutely deserve your penalty rates, and I will always work my hardest to protect those.

Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I start by offering my comments to my fellow Australians about the current crisis that finds itself at the feet of every Australian at the moment, with reference to those that are exposed to fuel prices and those that are exposed to the lack of fuel. I think, at the last count, there were over 900 service stations without fuel. Perplexing for some to think as to how this could happen when we are being told that we have the storage capacity in hand and that this is nothing other than panic buying by the Australian public—my task here with this grievance debate is not to come in here and join a conga line of tit-for-tat, blaming one or the other for the perilous situation that we find ourselves in, but to have a sobering conversation with the Australian public about what the coming months and potentially the coming years look like.

In the last 48 hours, I have spoken with a number of constituents in my electorate who are reaching out to voice their concerns, and there is no better place than a grievance debate to raise those concerns and share them with the Australian public. I'm sure those on the other side of the chamber are receiving exactly the same calls. I have a fuel distributor who sends nine B-doubles to the fuel terminal a week. He supplies 450 farmers. He supplies two shire councils. He supplies six service stations and three bus companies. Last week, he was down to two B-double loads, and the distributors have told him that there's no fuel this week. Can you imagine what his business model looks like when it comes to clients ringing him right in the middle of a harvest time—those growers that I said that he represents. We got some type of idea of what an essential service looked like during COVID. If those farmers don't have the diesel that they require to plant the food to put on the plates of Australians in a month's time—the crisis that we face now of not having diesel falls into insignificance when we don't have food to put on the shelves. I just make that point I make these points to outline what we need to be doing as a government to make sure that we are trying to inoculate ourselves from every scenario.

Last week, there were two bills that were introduced into the House. One was to deal with the fuel crisis. One was a bill to deal with increasing the fines for the ACCC on regulators or fuel suppliers who may be taking the opportunity to gouge. The second part of the bill that came through the House concurrently allowed the transport sector to pass on the fuel levy. Some seven out of 10 transport operators may have entered into long-term contracts with suppliers. I know, when I was a transport operator, I had rise-and-fall provisions in my contracts that allowed me, when fuel went up, to pass that through and subsequently, when fuel went down, to make sure that those savings would go back to head contractors, multinationals.

I do understand that there's a whole swathe of independent operators that don't have that complexity and that level of sophistication in their contract agreements and that are taking the opportunity now that fuel has near on doubled just to simply park their trucks up. We've all heard the phrase that without trucks, without the transport sector, our nation stops. That is a dire situation, and it's incumbent on us to find solutions to keep our transport sector moving and to keep our truckers rolling.

I also have had conversations in this place with risk assessors, those who will make assessments on this current conflict and assess how this affects their business, the financial markets and the insurance markets into the future. Take, for example, bond rates and what they look like into the future. Assessors will make short-term, mid-term and long-term risk assessments. God willing, the short-term risk assessment is that this is over and done in a matter of weeks, if not months, the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East is reopened, and we see some return to normality. We as a country have little or no influence over that geopolitical landscape. As a result, we then take a look at what the mid-term risk looks like: troops on the ground and a 12-month insurgence. And the worst-case scenario that the risk assessors are genuinely making provisions around is a four-year conflict. When they make predictions of a four-year conflict, they're doing that around previous conflict timeframes, such as Iraq and Afghanistan. We all remember Russian President Putin's words that he'd be in and out of Ukraine in eight days. Three years later, they are still heavily entrenched with each other's conflict. So there's a real possibility that this could last for years. The risk assessments are being done now, so let's take that as our starting point.

Can I assure those farmers who, as I said at the beginning of my speech, were ringing and telling me about their problems with a lack of fuel that fuel is going to be the least of their problems if this is going on for two or three or four years. Fuel is going to be the least of their problems if they've got fuel in the trucks but they don't have fertiliser, which is another fuel-based commodity, a petroleum by-product that comes predominantly from gas through the urea that we need for nitrogen—a component which has revolutionised the agricultural sector with its yields. Fertiliser now is the single most valuable commodity when we're doing our inputs into a crop. The other concern we have is adBlue.

If we're still having this conversation in two, three or four years, as I said to my growers, 'The inputs that you're worried about today, like fuel, will fall into insignificance when the inflationary effects of fuel, fertiliser, adBlue and all the other costs are felt.' Remember, when you go to a shop and buy something that's packaged in plastic, your fruit and vegetables, all that plastic and packaging is a by-product of fuel. So, when fuel goes up, you won't just feel it at the bowser; you'll feel it across every commodity when you go to the checkout. That inflationary effect that will flow through has the potential, on our current trajectory—and Westpac are making these projections already for the short term, for the next 12 months—for interest rates in Australia alone to move three basis points by the end of the year. That's sobering. So, if this continues and you're doing three basis points a year, that's close to four per cent, with some ebbs and flows, over three or four years. Can you imagine the effect that that will have on the Australian public?

It is incumbent on us as a government to not be doing everything possible but to be acting now. A wise man once said, 'The smartest time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, to be able to sit in the shade of it.' The smartest time now to be building the infrastructure that we need to be able to manufacture our fertiliser and to manufacture and be independent of our own AdBlue supplies and our fuel sovereignty is now. I want to work with the government on bringing solutions that protect every single Australian.