Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) Share this | Hansard source

What we see is a lot of spin going around today. We're hearing a lot on who did what and when they did that, with a lot of facts on the table. We get this 'fact' that there is no fuel supply problem—it is almost gaslighting the Australian people that can't do their things out there. 'We are going to have a roundtable. That's how we are going to fix this. We are going to talk this problem out of existence'—what a great strategy that is. Let's get down to it. Roundtables won't put things on breakfast tables. Roundtables won't put stuff on dinner tables. We hear, 'So many of the refineries shut down before.' What about Clyde? What about Kurnell? These two they won't mention—the 2011 and 2012 announced closures under a Labor government.

This is the thing. Let's let some facts creep into what's going on. When they say there is no problem with fuel supply, tell that to the fishing people of Cairns, where fuel has jumped 30c to $2.40 a litre. Townsville is up 28c. Fishing fleets were already suffering under so much regulation they can't go out and put food on tables, Australian seafood, because they either can't afford the fuel to go out and fish or can't get the fuel to go out and fish. Tin Can Bay Ltd's normal supply is down to 40,000 litres per day. That is 10 per cent of normal supply. What is going to happen because we don't have great fuel supply? Let's not pretend we do. We hear the Minister for Climate Change and Energy saying there is no problem, but we have service station businesses going out of business.

My mate Jonno in the Hunter Valley has a frame and truss business. He's been told he has to buy three weeks worth of fuel upfront at $2.30 a litre to keep his trucks on the road. This is the hit that is everywhere because our fuel supply system has done nothing for a long time. When those opposite sit there and say the previous government did nothing, I was at the Port of Newcastle when the strategic fuel reserve fund funded increases in tank capacity at Park Fuels and Stolthaven. You can't say it didn't happen, because I was there and I watched it happen. These fuel operators don't make more money by storing more fuel because they are only selling the same amount of fuel. The government has to step up and build the facilities and fund the operation so that we can keep this fuel in Australia. When this governments is saying more fuel is stored here than ever before, that's because the previous government funded the creation of these things and they were built during this time. But they were not funded by this government. Once again, they are just taking the credit for a decision of the previous government. They are the facts.

Right across the nation, we are seeing businesses—we're going to see sorghum harvesting in Central Western Queensland. They don't have the fuel to do that other than the fuel in their tanks. We're about to see planting in other parts, and they don't have the diesel to do that. But we're going to go to roundtables and we're going to talk this problem out of existence! What the roundtables are meant to do is not to find a solution or solve the problem; they're meant to go long enough that you forget about it out there in public. They're meant to sweep it under the cover so that you pretend that they're right.

It's gaslighting. If this government were a person, it would have a narcissistic complex, because it gaslights all the time. It pretends it's the victim—that it's the victim of the last government or of something else, such as Ukraine or Iran. It never takes responsibility. It is a narcissistic government that does not get on with the answers. Why aren't we out there? We could do more on the ethanol mandate. We could do more on biodiesel. We could fund more storage in regional areas so that, when the big four are shutting down their supplies to secondary suppliers, there is diesel and fuel in regional areas. There are answers that we need. There are answers that we can do. There are levers that the energy minister can pull to fix the problem. But what has he chosen? To talk about it. Weekly roundtables are the answer to the fuel supply problem in Australia, according to this government.

That's what we're stuck with. We're looking at this melee between what happens in the real world and what happens in Labor's world. In Labor's world, we probably got the $275 reduction in energy prices. In Labor's world, there is no fuel supply issue. The Tin Can Bay boats can fill up—the tourist charter boats in Queensland who are getting about 10 per cent of their supply as well. The economy is suffering everywhere because of poor management. Put some money up. Pull some levers. Make sure this happens. Start investing in the things that keep Australia strong, because sovereignty only comes when we have fuel security, food security and economic security, and you can do none of that when you pretend the problems are in people's minds and not in their lives.