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

What we've heard from the government today is nothing short of a failure in leadership. It's not leadership; it's entirely been deflection. We're told first by the minister that the coalition has engaged in what he referred to as 'hyperventilating' and 'hyperpartisanship' by pointing out that there was a crisis going on under the government's nose that they were refusing to acknowledge let alone address. You'll recall—it was some weeks ago now—that the coalition said, 'Hey, this Iran crisis is going to cause a problem with fuel.' Do you know what the government did? They said, 'Stop dramatising.' What was the phrase Senator Ayres used? I thought that this was fantastic. He called it 'far-right, extremist scaremongering that had people lining up at petrol stations when there was no need'.

Well, I don't know what Senator Ayres does when he's not in this building, but clearly it's not passing a petrol station, because it had nothing to do with the coalition hyperventilating or overdramatising or being hyperpartisan. There was a crisis going on outside the walls of this building, and the government refused to acknowledge it. The problem is: that crisis continues on today. While the government has been talking, getting the next announceable and making sure that Minister Bowen has something to say every single day, the problem has continued. Australians are still lining up at empty bowsers. Eight hundred and seventy petrol stations today are out of one or both fuels. No wonder Australians are beginning to panic. While this government has been accusing others of student politics, families are being smashed every day at the pump.

We were very pleased to see that the government has finally adopted the coalition's policy of slashing the fuel excise. Every day that the government delayed in this decision cost Australians around $16 million from their hip pockets. The coalition announced this policy with the understanding that Australians were doing it tough, that this was on top of the cost-of-living crisis that already existed, and that Michele Bullock, the RBA governor, had said that inflation was out of control before the war in Iran, which was why they needed to raise interest rates. While this was all going on, the coalition were coming up with a genuine plan, whereas the government were simply coming up with excuses. Now they've adopted the coalition's policy, and we're very pleased to see that.

However, they have missed one crucial element. How are they going to pay for it? This is going to cost $2.5 billion. That's the impact on the budget. Annualise that, and you can estimate it at $10 billion a year. That's an enormous stimulus package. There is no plan to save money to pay for the cut in fuel excise. When the coalition announced its policy, it had a plan on how to pay for it to make sure that the impact wasn't inflationary. Clearly, this government has given up on the war with inflation. It has no idea how to get inflation down. Now it's planning on the equivalent of spending an extra $2.5 billion.

When fuel excise is cut, it's good for inflation. It artificially brings down that headline inflation. That's a good thing. Don't get me wrong. It has secondary effects too. It'll bring down the cost of transport, which hopefully will mean that the items that eventually end up on our grocery shelves will be less expensive than they would otherwise have been. However, when the fuel excise cut comes off, that headline inflation will go back up, and, on the way through, we'll have spent $2.5 billion because the government has no idea how to manage a budget. It has made an enormous decision today and has no idea how to pay for it.

Australians will end up paying the price. They'll end up paying the price with higher inflation. They'll end up paying the price with higher interest rates. This is a government that has simply washed its hands of that and said, 'It's a problem with the Middle East.' That's not surprising, because they have blamed everybody else for their problems and their crises. They've blamed the previous government. They've blamed Donald Trump. They've blamed Iran. They've blamed everybody. They've blamed the states. Just last week they were blaming consumers for rushing on petrol, doing the most logical and rational thing: filling up your car with petrol when the prices were lower than they were going to be the following week. Somehow that's un-Australian. How dare the government accuse you of being un-Australian for doing what is entirely rational.

We're very pleased today to see the government finally adopting coalition policy. Hopefully we'll see so much more of it, but here's the problem: How will you get the fuel to the bowsers? There is still no plan for that. Eight-hundred and seventy fuel stations have no fuel. Prime Minister, what will you do about it? (Time expired)