James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

I want to refer the Senate to a quote from Senator Ayres. On Tuesday 3 March 2026 Senator Ayres said, 'We have larger reserves on hand today than there have been at any time over the last 15 years as a result of the action, not words, that this government has taken.' That was a month ago. But the reality is that that's not what's happening out there in the real world. We have a Labor government here who sort of go between the bubble of their electric vehicle Comcar and the bubble of this building, and they actually don't understand what's happening there.

This morning while I was having my morning coffee, at about six o'clock, I was planning what I was going to do on the weekend, and I looked up Bunnings. While I was searching for some things, what was really interesting was that searches for jerry cans, fuel cans and diesel cans came up automatically, because the mob out there—our people, the Australian people—don't believe the Labor government that the fuel is there, because for four years they've had a prime minister who is rarely in the same room as when truth is being told. The mob out there, the people of Australia, can see through this prime minister and see through these cabinet ministers, who have stood up here for four or five weeks now and used a form of words to say to everybody, 'Don't panic, don't panic,' when the mob out there know there is an issue with our fuel supply.

Four weeks ago I was in a little town in the Darling Downs called Allora, if you happen to know it. My parents lived there; my mum lives there now. Its fuel ran out about four weeks ago now—ran out. At the same time, Labor ministers were in this chamber saying there was no issue in Queensland. Indeed, one Labor minister said the fuel supply issue in Queensland was because of the flooding. Apart from a lack of understanding of the geographical situation in Queensland—fuel stations on the Downs were running out a month ago, and the flooding was taking place up in the north-west and in Wide Bay-Burnett—it just shows that when the government ministers come into this place they're not prepared to tell the Australian people the truth; they're not prepared to look Australians in the eye and say, 'Look, we do have an issue with fuel supply.' They're not prepared to give the advice. They're not prepared to take the appropriate action. They take action only when the opposition—Angus Taylor, Dan Tehan, Jane Hume and Matt Canavan—have called them out, for example on the halving of the fuel excise, which is something the opposition has been calling for, for a number of days now. It's only now that Prime Minister Albanese has done one of his backflips and agreed with what the opposition had been calling for.

What is also interesting is the tone of the ministers. This week they've realised that they've created a problem through their lack of leadership. In previous weeks in here we had the frontbench all cock-a-hoop and trying to rub noses in it, blaming the Right Wing media, blaming Arthur Fadden—blaming everybody for the fuel crisis. You could bottle the arrogance and sell it at a country fair.

This week their tone is different, because they know there was a problem out there and they know that the mob has seen through them, and they've being held to account for their failures to ensure that we have fuel security in this country. They have failed Australians. (Time expired)