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

The answer to that question is, firstly, that the Australian Institute of Petroleum says—and I'm not sure whether this facility is a member of that organisation or not—that in some areas:

The rush to buy fuel has been unprecedented, outstripping the surge seen at the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian war in 2022.

So consumer behaviour here is different. But, in supply terms, those figures that I outlined to the Senate earlier have fundamentally not changed over the course of the conflict. They are about the same. That is because ships have been arriving as predicted. Ships are on the water to Australia as predicted. We are obviously watching those developments closely. But it is not correct to go around saying that Australia has a supply challenge, because that is just not true.

In terms of price, just as I say a national challenge is not an opportunity for political partisanship and political profiteering, it is not an opportunity for price gouging and price profiteering either. That is why we've announced the doubling of penalties for false or misleading conduct and cartel behaviour to a maximum of $100 million per offence across the economy. That's why the ACCC has been tasked to ramp up fuel price monitoring and report weekly, with a focus on unusual price spikes. I won't go to the next bit, because I won't finish it and I'll hear— (Time expired)