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

I suppose what I object to from the senator from Queensland is that implicit in that question—and it's gone with some of the questions that have come from over here—is that there are challenges in terms of fuel that are because the government in Iran has blockaded the Strait of Hormuz. There are—and we will come to these questions—challenges in price terms but not immediate shortages in terms of PVC piping. That is an opportunity for Australians to pull together, not to blame the government to seek a partisan opportunity in terms of how we respond to a set of national challenges.

This government, whether it's in terms of petrol or diesel or PVC or urea or fertiliser supplies more broadly, has acted in a way that no previous government has to secure in terms of fuel supplies a minimum stockholding obligation that is larger than it has been for 15 years, because the government that was run by this lot over here that you vote with every day of the week in your own peculiar uniparty failed to act. In fact, what they did, worse than that, was close down four out of six refineries. Mr Taylor said, 'I kept the last two open,' the day before yesterday. 'I kept the last two open.' The only thing he was missing was time. If he got five more minutes, he would have closed those down too.