Raff Ciccone (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Just for the record, I should say—Senator Smith mentioned inflation—that, when Labor first came into office after the 2022 election, let's not forget that those opposite had an inflation rate of 7.8 per cent. After we came in, it was down to 6.1 per cent, and then, by the end of 2024, two years after, the hard work of both Senator Gallagher as Minister for Finance and Treasurer Jim Chalmers in the other place managed to get inflation down to 2.1 per cent, and that is a fact. That is a fact.

It is another fact that the now opposition leader, Mr Taylor, when he was the energy minister, made arrangements that he put in law to have our fuel reserves in Texas, over in the United States of America—not a Texas here in Australia but overseas. When we came into government, we made sure we changed those rules and changed those regulations to make sure that more of that fuel was actually stored onshore here in Australia. In case the worst ever happened, we would have enough in the supply chain domestically before we would have to call on our other reserves over in the United States.

But we understand that people are feeling uncertainty now and feeling very worried about it. That's just human nature. We get that. But the government have listened, and we are making it very clear that we want to reassure them, not scare them like those opposite.

Our nation's fuel reserves are secure. We are above our minimum domestic fuel obligations, and our reserves are stored here in Australia. We're also fuel secure because the government has acted since it was elected back in 2022—and thank God for that. The government has also been very clear that the international crisis we are seeing right now is not one where businesses are seeing a commercial opportunity to raise the cost of petrol but one impacted by what is happening over in the Middle East.

It is also worth mentioning and putting on the record that we have—this is the domestic reserves—36 days of petrol, 29 days of jet fuel and 32 days of diesel. That's a lot more than when those opposite were in government. This shouldn't be a competition, quite frankly, because the people in the gallery and people listening today are sick and tired of the politics that are being played out, and sick and tired of some in this place trying to scare the bejeezus out of people, who are now rushing to petrol stations around their suburbs and their townships both in metropolitan and regional parts of Australia trying to get fuel supply—and I don't blame them, because they are listening to information that they shouldn't be listening to. This fact is true: we do not have a fuel shortage in this country. There is enough fuel in Australia. When we went through COVID, people were panicked—and rightly so—but there was enough in the supply chain to make sure that we had essential goods for people so that they could continue to feed their families.

Petrol companies have informed us that fuel stocks continue to arrive in Australia on time—and, they are also saying, in the quantities they expect. It's also clear that there have been some impacts on the supply chain, but, again, unfortunately, it goes to some of the scaremongering we are seeing. The National Oil Supplies Emergency Committee, which brings all the states together, has already met twice now, as an information-sharing forum, and has considered that there is no shortage of supply.

As Minister Ayres also mentioned in question time—and I want to repeat this—the government is now doubling penalties for any misleading conduct in the fuel market, with fines increasing to as much as $100 million for serious breaches. We're putting petrol companies on notice. These are stronger penalties that send a very clear message that misleading Australians or exploiting uncertainty will have very serious consequences. The government is also ramping up surveillance of suspicious price spikes to ensure that companies can't take advantage of global events to drive up prices unfairly.