Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the urgency motion—and not for the first time. This chamber has debated day in, day out since this crisis began, asking the government to step up to the plate and act. We've talked about the crisis in our trucking industry. That is why the opposition called for a slashing of the fuel excise and the road user charge so that our trucking industry, which keeps our country moving, gets the support it needs right now. Truckies are parked up, not filling their tanks, because of the cost of putting it in the tank. And they can't pass that additional cost on to the consumer, but, when they do, watch inflation rise.

From listening to the government, you'd think they'd had it all under control since day one. We are heading into week 5. We are the most diesel dependent country in the world. It is not just our mining industry and agriculture, which pay the bills. Those of us that don't live in capital cities don't have a lot of choice. To hear the ridiculous contributions from the Labor Party senators, who somehow think you can hook up a B-double full of cattle, coming down from Rockhampton to Brisbane, and actually use an electric truck? Seriously! I'm all for electric where it makes sense; that's usually in suburbs and capital cities, where you can plug it in at night. The problem with electric heavy vehicles is you need to fund bridge and road upgrades right across the country because these trucks are too heavy to be in line with regulations—but they don't worry about safety when it suits them.

It's not just the trucking industry being smashed here; our construction industry—every digger, every grader, every crane and every cement mixer—uses diesel. They can't afford to keep adding this to the construction not just of our housing supply but of our essential road and transport infrastructure. The rail industry is screaming for help. Bus operators, particularly school bus operators in rural and regional Australia, cannot afford this cost increase. Our ports are all screaming to know whether or not they are going to be considered essential services if this crisis rolls on.

The anxiety that is out there in business and in the community is a result of this government never taking responsibility. It's always someone else's fault—the state premiers, Donald Trump, Iran. Guess what, guys? You won the election—two in a row. It's all yours, and the great privilege of holding the government benches means you are also responsible for the solutions. Australians are finding you in a dearth of courage in this challenge. Leadership is about courage and stepping into the fray, standing with people and giving them the confidence that you, the government, are going to do whatever you can to help them.

We've seen day in and day out from this government that they don't know what to do. They refused to use the powers they have available to them under current legislation to direct the big oil companies to send fuel where it is needed so that our farmers who are wanting to put crops in, so we don't have a food security issue next season, can get them in. But Minister Bowen refuses to use those powers—and that's because this is a minister who's afraid to be responsible.

I want to put biofuels on the table. It is crazy that we are sending feedstock for clean fuel to Europe so they can secure their own fuel supply domestically, instead of processing that here onshore. We could have done that for a fraction of the cost we've given to Twiggy Forest over the years for his green hydrogen projects. Domestic ethanol capacity sits largely idle despite this global crisis. We've got capacity to produce 360 million litres of ethanol and 100 million litres of biodiesel. That is immediate assistance into the supply problem. Instead, this minister just increases dirty fuel—and we still don't know if it's hit the bowser. Labor needs to do more. (Time expired)