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

Thank you, Senator Hanson. It is the case that this conflict in the Middle East is an unprecedented shock. I think the IEA director-general was here during the week, and he said that it was, in his view, the largest in history. We are taking every practical action that is open to the government. We are aware, of course, of the powers that are in that act from the early 1980s, and we have regard to all of those questions in terms of our approach. Our judgment is that the practical action that we are undertaking now, including in relation to the ACCC's powers in these hours, is the most effective approach.

We have to work together—government, the petroleum industry, including the retailers and distributors, industry more broadly, farmers, miners, the manufacturing sector and the construction industry all working together to deliver the right result. We've already acted to release up to 20 per cent of our diesel and fuel reserves—that is, reserves that otherwise would not have been available but for the actions of this government—as a shock absorber for the Australian economy. In our judgment it was the right thing to do to release 20 per cent, to relieve some of those pressures in distribution chains, particularly, as you point out, in regional Australia, where independent retailers struggle to secure supply in the spot market, in a market that has been constructed historically to provide for the maximum competition. We've given the ACCC new teeth, and we have also lifted the powers of the ACCC that prevent the companies working together to secure supply in a cooperative way. (Time expired)