Ross Cadell (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked today.

We heard in question time today—and I like to throw in quotes with things—a quote that's sometimes attributed to Napoleon and sometimes to Omar Bradley, which says, 'Amateurs talk tactics and professionals talk logistics.' We are seeing that this government is an amateur when it comes to national crises. We are seeing that it is an amateur when it comes to planning for the future, because it is not planning logistics; it is talking about tactics.

This is what we're seeing. We're seeing the amateurs in charge of a response to help Australia's fuel situation. We're hearing about the Strait of Hormuz and we're hearing about the Ukrainian gas problem. We're hearing about these things as well. I tell you, we are not seeing Putin on the Bruce Highway. We are not seeing the IRGC on the M1. We are not seeing the mullahs on the Hume Highway. What we are seeing is a failure to get the fuel from where the government tells us it is to where it is needed. That is the real challenge we are facing here.

When we are seeing service stations in regional areas run out, such as the one in Western Australia we were told about by Senator O'Sullivan today, we are seeing that these things are not working out there. What are we doing? We hear about the tactics used by this government to fix it. We hear them say, 'The ACCC will fix it; we're giving them extra powers and penalties.' The ACCC can't look into price gouging. They can't look into this thing that is happening out there in the service stations in the states. They can't look into big oil and the way they put that out around the world. When we're talking about the tactics of releasing 100 million litres a month—let's get down to it—that is less than one litre per person per week. Those are the big steps we are taking on this.

It is not about the Strait of Hormuz and what happens there, because they keep saying that we have more oil in the country than we had at the beginning of this. If that is true, how come the service stations can't sell it? How come the big enterprises of the world can't get the urea to make the glue that goes into kitchen cabinets, pine board and particle board? How come we are not getting the diesel on farms that they sell? The big guys are now supplying. There used to be little wholesalers in the spot market, but they're not selling to people anymore, because the big boys say: 'I've got my fuel, and I'm going to come there. I'm going to use my market dominance in this area.' Then they come out and say, 'Your tank's not compliant; I'm not going to fill you up,' or 'This is not underground.' They give any reason in the world.

I'll go to my home, in the Hunter. I know an operator there who felt he got ripped off a couple of weeks ago because he had to prepay for three weeks of fuel at $2.30 a litre, and that was 200,000 bucks. He's now feeling he won the lotto because it's $3.50. He's in the market buying more, and this is what we're seeing. We're seeing a fuel system and logistics system break down, and the government have powers to deal with this. There is section 11, and we have all of these national powers. What is worse is the ABC reports that the government ran a simulation through NEMA, the National Emergency Management Agency, last year on what they would do in this situation. This is them at their best, with recent practice—them after having an exercise on what they would if this happened. God help everyone out there if they hadn't done that! Imagine what would be happening now.

What we heard was no guarantees to two simple questions. They were asked: 'Can you guarantee we won't run out of fuel?' No guarantee came. They were asked: 'Can you guarantee there will be no rationing?' No guarantee came. This is why we know the amateurs are in charge of this response. All we hear about is the global shocks. You can't have it both ways. You can't have more stock in the country now than there ever has been and have less fuel in service stations and say 'We are in control.' Those things are not compatible, and that is how we're going forward. When we leave here, forget the tactics and forget the politics. Get to the logistics, and keep Australia moving.