Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

One good turn deserves another, I suppose. This suspension is not warranted. This government has taken more action in relation to fuel security than any government in a generation. This suspension is not warranted because this government has acted in a practical way. There is, I reported, 1½ billion litres of petrol and three billion litres of diesel for the first time because we've implemented minimum stockholding obligations. There is, of course, as today's visit indicated and also the conflict in the Middle East underscores, the rationale for the government's broader Future Made Australia, our broader critical minerals approach, our broader approach to making sure that we have fuel reserves, not in Texas as Mr Taylor had sort of delivered under the previous government—the El Paso approach—but in Australia, with Australian fuel reserves in Australia.

There is no suspension warranted here because what is really going on is the extreme-right-wing One Nation Party-National Party-Liberal Party approach to this, which is to deceive Australians about what is really going on here. They were silent as church mice while Mr Taylor was the minister for energy. If there was any urgency about this, they would have been up and about then. But there has been deadly silence from the Liberal's best friends, the One Nation Party—absolute silence. They have been abjectly silent over the course of that period and suddenly they have discovered fuel security. After four out of the six refineries closed, they act now as if Australia has reserves of crude oil that would make a difference! Do you know what is making a difference for ordinary households? It's being able to access electric vehicles. They drive past petrol stations, and see the signs on the petrol stations. That is a fuel security measure right there, for Australia and Australians. It takes the pressure off petrol and diesel. And those families themselves get to access the benefits of that.

This suspension is not warranted, because behind it sits a nasty, mean-spirited, disruptive, dishonest campaign—