Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

On the provision of free or lower cost public transport, we welcome that, and that is a good thing. I understand that Victoria and Tasmania already have done so and that other states and territories have also looked at lower cost public transport. Obviously, the more that we, through voluntary measures and through choice, can reduce our fuel usage, particularly in the cities, then the more capacity there is to address some of those distributional challenges that we are seeing in regional Australia, which as Senator McGrath correctly points out has impacts on our economy now and also into the future. We welcome states and territories who do that.

The government has put in place a very substantial package today. There is obviously a significant cost to the budget from the fuel and diesel excise reduction and the heavy vehicle road user charge changes that we have put in place. But we believe that they are important and at a time when we see fuel prices where they are, as a consequence of this conflict.

I will just take issue, if I may, with the way in which the Australian Greens continue to run a political argument but never recognise the choice that Iran has made about how it is responding, including civilian targets. I await their condemnation of Iran attacking non-combatant nations, and I await your condemnation of Iran attacking civilian targets, and I await your condemnation of Iran holding the Strait of Hormuz and therefore the international fuel market hostage. I look forward to it.