Richard Dowling (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think the international community largely has been very clear, as has the Australian government, that the Iranian regime can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. We have, with the international community, called for the Iranian regime to uphold human rights and fundamental freedoms for Iran's citizens. Instead, the regime instigated a brutal crackdown, killing thousands of its own citizens.

Therefore, we have indicated, as a government, that we support the United States and Israel in acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent Iran from continuing to threaten international peace and security. Australia didn't participate in these strikes, but we are in contact with international partners, including in the region, and, most importantly, we want to see how it affects Australians. For Australians living or travelling abroad, we know the impact it's had. There have been much wider ramifications in the Middle East, including major airport hubs closed, transport offline and telecommunications disrupted. We're making sure consular support is there for those affected Australians to get home safely.

We also need to think about how we respond to the economic shock. We talk about our physical security both here and abroad, but the economic security is just as critical. People will be wondering: what are the implications of this Iranian conflict for our economy? Ukraine gives us a good template for that. We saw a huge oil price shock when the Russians invaded Ukraine, we saw shortages of fertiliser, and we saw shortages of food supplies, and that had a big implication for Australia's economy at the time. Rising gas prices pushed up inflation. We had global supply chain shocks, and our resilience was tested. But I think we came through that conflict stronger and more resilient. It's actually turned our attention to what we need to do to protect Australia, protect our living standards, build our sovereign capability and protect our supply chains.

Australia is a great trading nation, and we value a rules-based international trading system of free and fair trade. But we also need to be mindful that those trade links can be broken at times of conflict, which we're seeing become more and more prevalent. If we think about the trade that goes through the affected Strait of Hormuz, in the Middle East, 20 per cent of the world's oil passes through that strait. It undoubtedly will have an impact.

But what we can do is insulate ourselves, and this is what the Albanese Labor government has been doing. We are trying to rethink our industrial capacity and build more energy security by helping homes and businesses invest in clean forms of electricity that don't require exposure to gas and oil, and that will help protect ourselves from these international shocks. We don't control the international oil price or international gas prices; we're a price taker. But we can be resilient to the shocks and help underpin our industrial base. The Australian government will always be there to protect Australians' living standards through these shocks. We did it last time with energy bill relief, and we also provided three rounds of tax cuts for every Australian taxpayer. If you combine those tax cuts, the average value is about 2½ thousand dollars a year, forever and ongoing.

We're doing more work to strengthen Australian domestic gas supply to prioritise Australian gas for Australians. We're making that a priority. Again, we're building resilience to these international shocks. We've accelerated renewable energy investment to reduce exposure to volatile global fossil fuel markets. Our Future Made in Australia agenda forms part of that response to these global structural shocks, supporting domestic manufacturing to clean energy, critical minerals and advanced industry. These are not just great economic measures to boost our jobs and economy; they're actually protecting us from these very severe international shocks that we're witnessing right now. Rather than being permanently exposed to global price volatility, we're securing Australia's industrial base so we can be both physically and economically secure in these times of volatility.