Slade Brockman (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on Appropriation Bill (No. 3) 2025-2026, Appropriation Bill (No. 4) 2025-2026 and Appropriation (Parliamentary Departments) Bill (No. 2) 2025-2026. Appropriation bills, for those listening along to this debate, are very important bills when it comes to the framing of a government's priority and agenda.

As with previous appropriation bills from this government, unfortunately what we see here again is a government that has its agenda and its priorities all wrong. It's a government that has not been upfront with the Australian people for four years. We have seen over that period 14 interest rate rises. We have seen over that period a government that has been using its monetary policy and its fiscal policy in direct contradiction to the monetary policy outcomes sought by the Reserve Bank. We've had a government that's been pouring money into the economy at a time when the Reserve Bank has been seeking to put downward pressure on inflation.

As we enter this period of global turmoil, where inflation is on the rise, Australians should absolutely always remember that inflation was already trending up before the conflict in Iran started to affect the markets. Inflation was well above the Reserve Bank's band and was trending upwards. So we had a government that was pouring money into the economy, fuelling inflation and fuelling interest rate rises, with no serious plan on how to rein in its own spending.

In fact, when we question the government on its spending priorities, all the government is capable of saying is, 'Well, what would you cut?' I'm sorry, Labor, but you are in government. It's actually up to you to determine your priorities and determine how to manage the Australian economy to the benefit of Australian families, to the benefit of Australian small businesses and to the benefit of the Australian economy as a whole. Labor simply cannot be upfront with the Australian people in that regard. The economy is fundamentally weak, and that's what we now see with the pressure being put on it by external events.

External events happen. Global shocks happen. A good government prepares and makes the Australian economy resilient in the face of those events. A good government prepares and makes sure our spending is sensible, contained and responsible. A good government doesn't come into this place day after day, when it is bleedingly obvious to every Australian that there are issues in our fuel supply market, and say, 'There's nothing to see here.' A good government, when it recalls diplomats' families from the Middle East on 25 February, starts to think about the impact a potential conflict in the Middle East could have on Australia. One of the blindingly obvious things, even well before 25 February, was that an outbreak of conflict in the Middle East would have an impact on the availability and the price of fuel, both diesel and unleaded petrol. Yet, day after day in this place, when asking the minister representing the minister for energy, we heard the same thing: 'There's nothing to see here. The opposition is merely stoking fear. The opposition is encouraging panic buying.'

Australians were blamed. The government blamed Australians for panic buying. Well, I'm sorry, but, if my business runs on diesel, then it is not panic buying to try and protect my business by filling up a tank. If I'm a farmer in the Wheatbelt of Western Australia and if my business is getting the seed in the ground this year to ensure that I actually have cashflow, that is not panic buying. If my business is driving, for whatever reason—and many tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Australians rely on driving for their income—and if I decide to fill up my tank and perhaps even have a little bit of reserve on hand, that is not panic buying. That is risk management. Those are entirely sensible decisions that businesses and individuals are making for their business and their family, given the global situation, given it was bleedingly obvious that there was an issue coming with the Australian fuel supply and given that the government was asleep at the wheel, sitting on its hands, doing absolutely nothing—in fact, saying, 'There is nothing to see here.'

How is it possible that we had a minister who, for so many days in the House of Representatives and in being represented here, effectively said, 'There is no issue'? Well, that simply wasn't the case, and it was very obvious that it wasn't the case. This shock—and, yes, there are factors outside this government's control. I'm more than happy to concede that. Every Australian is more than happy to concede that. But it came in the face of a government that had bad priorities and was overseeing a weak economy where inflation was already on the rise, where interest rates were already on the rise. The government, the Labor government, did not prepare the economy.

Fuel is so fundamental, particularly diesel, to the Australian economy, whether you want to talk about the mining industry in my home state of WA, the agriculture industry in my home state of WA or whether you want to talk about filling up the supermarkets, whether you want to talk about moving goods back and forth across the Nullarbor, which is very important. Diesel makes Australia run. It is literally required by every single industry in Australia. Without diesel, Australia stops. So the first obligation of the government in the circumstance where it is obvious that there is a risk of a conflict in the Middle East is to ensure that requirement for diesel is maintained and strengthened, and there is absolutely no evidence on the table that this government did a thing to strengthen and increase our reserves in the face of an imminent shock.

Australians are hurting as a result. In the latest release of information something like 500 petrol stations across Australia have run out of at least one type of fuel. Obviously, that is one sort of pain. The other sort of pain is, if you are a business reliant on fuel to run, then you are now paying over $3 for a litre of diesel. I have been speaking to an earthmoving contractor in the south of Western Australia regularly over the past few weeks. His business runs on diesel. If he cannot get diesel, then his business will stop. He will generate no income. He will have no income to pay his employees. Luckily, overnight, he did get some fuel to keep going. Literally, he was down to his last day of fuel in his machinery, and last night, thank goodness, he did get some fuel to keep people on the job, to keep people working in this country, to keep his machinery moving. That's great news.

The difficult thing—the very, very difficult thing—for his business is that, rather than the around $1.80 or $1.90 a litre that he was hoping to pay for that diesel, he was paying over $3 a litre for that diesel. Again, this is a business where—as so many businesses do in Australia—energy input costs are a key input to the business and are a key cost to the business. You now see the economics of this particular business, as with so many businesses, are fundamentally altered by the current situation. If you are paying $3 or $3.10 a litre for diesel, the economics of earth moving are vastly different. He still has employees to pay. He still has insurance to pay. He still has maintenance on his vehicles to pay for, and one of his key input costs has gone through the roof, and that's why, from his point of view, he would have liked to have seen a government that was much more proactively responsive to the risk of this when it was very, very clear—people have been talking about the risk of this oil shock if something happened in the Middle East. We've seen it before. We've seen it so many times before. When there is conflict in the Middle East, there is an oil price shock. Everybody knows that's a risk.

We've got Australians hurting. I've spoken to so many farmers over the last few weeks who are worried about how they are going to manage their season. Seeding is underway in Western Australia, and that is proceeding, and that is good, but the lack of certainty, particularly around fertiliser, is now becoming a very, very serious concern in terms of the particular application of nitrogen through the season. We have risks to overall yields.

Western Australia has done an amazing job in terms of yields over the past four years—three crops in excess of 20 million tonnes; three record crops over four years. When I worked in the grains industry back in 2009 and 2010, an average crop in Western Australia was considered 10 or 11 million tonnes. Now, we've had three crops over 20 million tonnes—one of them 26 million tonnes—in the last few years. That is extraordinary efficiency and extraordinary productivity gain from our farming sector. Yet, this year, farmers are completely uncertain as to the ability to generate income and their ability to get key inputs, like fuel and fertiliser, and, therefore, their ability to feed the world is under question, because that's what the grain farmers of Western Australia do. Ninety-five per cent of the Western Australian grains crop is exported to help feed the world. It is a key part of so many international supply chains, and I have spoken to so many farmers who are dreadfully worried about the year ahead. And what did they hear from this government? Week after week, we sat in this place, we asked questions about the fuel situation, and we heard that there were no issues at all. This is a government that has lost control. It had no plan. It is now racing around trying to formulate one. It is a government that has let down the Australian people.