Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Australia is facing a genuine, national energy and fuel crisis. We're now seeing those skyrocketing prices at the bowsers, hitting Australian households with petrol around $2.50 per litre for unleaded and up to $3.20 per litre for diesel, prices that many Australians have simply never seen before. No wonder panic is beginning to rise. The uncertainty and the mixed messages that have been coming out of this government have only made the problem worse.

Fuel stations now, we are hearing, are running dry. Around 600 petrol stations around the country are running out of either both types or one type of fuel, and the impact on Australian families is entirely unacceptable. Those rising fuel costs are disconnecting Australian families and communities. It is totally unbelievable that Australian families have to rethink everyday things like a school drop, an extra run to the supermarket where the shelves may well be bare, visiting family over Easter or driving kids to school and to sport just to save money. The planned family holidays over Easter, the most common time of year for a driving holiday, are now being rethought.

Australians expect leadership, and all they have had are mixed messages. We want urgency. We want action. This is only one step, one small contribution to the action plan that we are expecting from government yet seeing so little of. There is concern about prices today, but there is more concern about what happens tomorrow. What happens when the food can't get to the supermarket because fuel prices are too high? What happens when our docks slow down and imports and exports slow dramatically? What happens when farmers stop harvesting or stop planting the next harvest because they're concerned they can't get access to either fertiliser or fuel? What happens when rubbish trucks stop picking up the rubbish from our bins, not just at our homes but at our hospitals and our aged-care centres?

This is what we've seen from this government: a lack of forward thinking and, at the same time, a complete backflip in messaging. First of all, we had, 'There's no problem at all.' In fact, anybody who was saying that there was a problem, that was pointing out that there was a crisis, was some sort of right wing, scaremongering extremist. What an enormous insult that was to all of those Australians outside of the Canberra bubble that could clearly see that there was a problem. The next thing they said was, 'Actually, there is a national crisis. Sorry. We got it wrong and there is a national crisis,' but then they did nothing. Finally, they called a National Cabinet meeting. They had to be dragged kicking and screaming, and that was really so they could push the responsibility back out onto the states. Thank goodness some of the premiers have stepped up, although I do say only some. Then they blamed consumers. I thought this was terrific. 'It's the problem of consumers. They're panic-buying. It's un-Australian to go out and fill your car with petrol when prices are lower today because you know that they're going to be higher tomorrow.' Apparently, that's un-Australian. I would have called that perfectly rational, but it was un-Australian according to Labor. This is a government that has been caught flat-footed, asleep at the wheel and then in denial about the scale of this crisis.

Fuel costs are hitting farmers, manufacturers, freight and logistics. They're hitting small businesses. It's an economy-wide impact that cannot be ignored, and these costs are being directly passed on to consumers. Let's face it, at the end of the day, it's always the consumers that are going to pay. Inflation has run rife in this country for the last four years. It hasn't been kept under control but has been allowed to be unfettered across the country because Labor has failed to do its job. You were already suffering from a cost-of-living crisis before this fuel crisis began.

It's Australian small business that are most under pressure here. They're the ones fighting a fight that no-one's coming to rescue them from. No-one's coming to rescue them. What if the only way you can distribute your goods is through delivery? Now we're seeing Australia Post, a government owned enterprise, increase its fuel levy on small businesses right around the country. It's small businesses that are suffering terribly. They're already facing industrial relations pressure, inflation from government spending, rising taxes and compliance costs. Fuel costs are just another hit on their already stretched margins. It's the worst possible time for the tourism sector, which is relying on this Easter break to be able to fill their coffers, increase their margins, to cover them for the rest of the year.

This crisis is urgent and real. It's hitting Australians right now. The government needs to do one thing. It's got one job, and that is to get fuel flowing. Its priorities are all wrong. This is just going to touch the sides. It's only going to scratch the surface.