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

I move the motion relating to the introduction and passage of a bill in the terms in which it appears on the Notice Paper:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the following from occurring in relation to the Treasury Laws Amendment (Fuel Excise Relief) Bill 2026:

(1) debate on the bill continuing after the second reading speech of the Minister;

(2) immediately following the conclusion of the discussion of a matter of public importance and the presentation of a delegation report by the Member for Corangamite, if the bill has not passed, debate to resume immediately;

(3) at no later than 5.30 pm, any questions necessary to complete the remaining stages of the bill being put, with any message from the Governor-General under standing order 147 being announced, and any detail amendments circulated being treated as if they had been moved [together] by the Member proposing them; and

(4) any variation to this arrangement being made only on a motion moved by a Minister.

For the benefit of the House, this suspension means the Treasurer would introduce the Treasury Laws Amendment (Fuel Excise Relief) Bill 2026 and debate would continue immediately. The speaking times would be as they ordinarily are. We'd be interrupted at 1.30 as usual for 90-second statements followed by question time, the MPI and then a presentation of one delegation report. After that, we'd return to the debate on the fuel excise bill. If we're still continuing at 5.30, at that point all questions before the House would be voted on, and any consideration-in-detail amendments which had been circulated would be treated as though they had been moved. I now welcome the very happy contribution from the Manager of Opposition Business.

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

I thank the Leader of the House. As you know, I'm always happy and have a wonderful demeanour—except when it comes to the government making a complete hash, a complete mess, of this national fuel crisis. Here we are again having to rush through legislation because the government has been completely and utterly asleep at the wheel. We are going to support this suspension motion, but we say again to the government: please try and get ahead of the game and don't be playing catch-up all the time. People are hurting out there in the community. They're hurting for two reasons: there is no supply of fuel and prices have gone through the roof.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister would not tell the Australian people how many fuel stations are out of fuel and how many service stations do not have either diesel or unleaded petrol. You talk about being responsible. In question time, when you're asked the question, front up and give Australians the facts. Why is the Prime Minister hiding the number of service stations that have no fuel? If there's no issue, then be upfront with the Australian people.

I'm here every single day, and we asked him twice yesterday. Returning to the suspension motion, it's incredibly important that we do suspend because we need this fuel excise bill brought on. Once again, we're seeing the government following the opposition's lead. We've led on this, and, once again, you very reluctantly have come along, so you're bringing this bill before the House. That's why we need to suspend. I'll give you a couple of quotes which show the reluctance, on the government's side, on this issue:

Now, when it comes to the fuel excise, that's not something that we've been considering.

Who said that? The Treasurer, on 4 March. Then he said:

The point that we've made about that, Andrew, is that it's not something that we've been considering.

That's the Treasurer, on 15 March. Then there's this:

We haven't taken a decision on the fuel excise, we've got a whole bunch of other ways that we're helping, because the emphasis here is on supply—

he won't even give us the figures on that—

the emphasis here is on working with the states and territories.

That was on 30 March. Then there was this from the Assistant Treasurer:

Now, it's interesting last week when this issue was front and centre just about every day, the Opposition didn't raise this issue of the fuel excise once for discussion or debate, and it just seems like today it's been raised as a bit of a thought bubble.

So the Assistant Treasurer was calling this legislation a thought bubble on Friday, yet here we are! The government is bringing this bill on. That's why we're supporting this suspension of standing orders. It's critically important.

As I said at the start, Australians are hurting. There are supply issues which are being hidden now by the government. They won't be transparent and upfront about them. I say to the Treasurer, when he finally gets to introduce the bill, that he should start by being upfront. Tell us what the situation is at the moment in this country in terms of service stations either with or without fuel. People are about to go on their Easter break, their Easter holidays, and they should know what the current situation is.

The second thing the Treasurer should detail for us is what the offsets are. We responsibly listed the offsets so that we wouldn't get inflation from a measure like this. We need to hear from the Treasurer, right here and now, what the offsets are. I can see him smiling, because he doesn't have them, and that's why we should—

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

Order! I'll ask the Manager of Opposition Business to pause for a moment. I've been very lenient with this debate. You've had a fairly good go. Let's get back to the pretty specific reasons for this motion today. We'll return to that. Otherwise, we'll have to wrap up.

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

We support the suspension because this bill is necessary to ease the pain and suffering that Australians are feeling at this time. That pain and suffering is real. Every time they go to the bowser—and they'll be doing it a lot in the lead-up to Easter and the school holidays—they are reminded of the incompetence of this government and the appalling way that they have handled this. That's why we must suspend. The government have talked, in their National Fuel Security Plan, about the need to bring measures forward.

I'll finish on this note. This is the plan—three flimsy pages. When Australians are hurting and suffering, this is what the government came up with—three flimsy pages. This isn't a plan. This is a political document to get the government out of the mess that they're in. You should do better. We will keep leading on this. I hope you keep following our ideas. That's why we're supporting this suspension motion.

Question agreed to.