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

The cost of living isn't just a line in the budget; it's the daily pressure families feel every time they tap their card at the supermarket or watch the numbers climb at the petrol pump. In the Mallee, we know that, when the price of fuel goes up, the price of everything follows, from groceries on the shelf to the freight moving across our highways.

Just over a week ago in Robinvale and Hattah, the pumps ran dry. I want to be really clear about why this has happened, because there is a lot of noise out there. Our national fuel supply is secure. The ships are arriving in our ports, exactly as scheduled. As the Prime Minister and Minister Bowen have made clear, the shortages we saw weren't because we've run out of fuel; they were because of a massive spike in demand which has put a sudden heavy strain on our local delivery chains. When people rush to fill up extra jerry cans just in case, it makes it harder for the fuel to get out to people who need it most—our farmers, our emergency services and our freight drivers.

This is why we stepped in. We aren't just watching from the sidelines; we're taking a responsible multipronged approach, because there is no 'one size fits all' solution here. We used our local fuel backup, a reserve we built from scratch through a minimum stockholding obligation, to release fuel into the market and stabilise supply. We also stood up a fuel taskforce and a direct hotline to industry to ensure regional towns are the priority and not an afterthought.

But we know that, even when fuel is flowing, the bill is still a massive weight on the family budget, and that's why our government is focused on direct, practical relief to ease the squeeze on your wallet. We are delivering tax cuts to every single taxpayer, along with energy bill relief. We've made medicines cheaper. We've wiped 20 per cent off HECS debt. In a crisis, you need a government that steps up, not back. That's exactly what we are doing.