Jana Stewart (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I, for one, certainly welcome a sensible and responsible conversation about fuel in this country. No-one on the side is blaming Australians for that. We are certainly not saying that the stories that we've heard today or the stories of people out in the community are not true. What we are saying in this place is that people's response to the war in Iran is being directly driven by the words of people in this place. That is what we are saying—that we all have a responsibility to remove fear and anxiety from the community, when it comes to how we manage a national crisis.

Those opposite see a national crisis, and they rub their hands together. They can't wait to stoke further fear and anxiety in the Australian community and to make you worry about a fuel supply that has remained the same. Supply that's coming into this country through Hormuz is the same. There has been no change to the fuel that's coming into this country. That is not what you would think after listening to the questions that they asked—at all!

Instead, what we have seen today is an irresponsible so-called party of government—the alternative government over there—driving fear and anxiety in the Australian community about the state of fuel in this country. What we have seen, as a result, is people stockpiling fuel because of the words that are coming out of your mouth. That's exactly what is happening here. Each of us have a responsibility, when we have the platform in this place, to speak and lead in a way that actually gives some sense of information about what's happening, and not to drive fear in the community for things that actually aren't happening. While the alternative government over there is acting like a crossbench instead of an alternative party of government, on this side, we will act like the party of government and lead with responsibility.

What's happening around the country, when it comes to fuel demands and the cost of fuel, is not separate from the work that we have been doing since we came to government. That is trying to ease the cost-of-living pressures that Australians are experiencing all the time, and, now, fuel is adding to the pressure that people are feeling on their hip pocket. We are absolutely getting on with delivering cost-of-living relief for Australians as our No. 1 priority—we've done that since the day we came to government—whether that means strengthening Medicare or whether it's delivering tax cuts for every single taxpayer and certainly making it fairer for women. On this side, we secured pay rises for minimum- and award-wage workers, totalling an increase of more than $9,000 for minimum- and award-wage workers.

What you see over here, in this little corner over here, is Pauline Hanson cozying up to Gina Rinehart, who has openly argued for cutting Australia's minimum wage and even talked about $2-an-hour pay day as a benchmark. That's who One Nation over there, the so-called party of the battlers, is cosying up with. They're very happy to vote against workers' rights, supporting their mate Gina. On this side we've expanded paid parental leave to 24 weeks for families and, for the first time, we are paying superannuation on paid government parental leave. We're supporting tradies with a $10,000 bonus for housing apprentices, and we're cutting household power bills permanently with 30 per cent off home batteries. We've introduced paid placements for nursing, teaching and social work and midwifery students, because no student should be forced to choose between finishing their degree and paying their bills—or, even worse, not taking up that degree in the first place because they can't afford it. While on the side we are getting on with delivering cost-of-living relief for Australians— (Time expired)