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

It gives me great pleasure, as the shadow transport minister and also as the Leader of the Nationals in the Senate, to support Senator Cash's call that this chamber be suspended and that the government give fuel relief to Australians right now. We do not need to have legislation. The minister, with the stroke of a pen, could cut the fuel excise right now and make changes to the road user charge so that our trucking industry could get the relief they are desperately seeking. Whilst the government stands up and talks a big empathetic game—the language: so empathetic; you'd think butter wouldn't melt in their mouth—we are heading into the fifth week of this crisis. And only now are we seeing a plan for a meeting today to come up with a plan on how to actually help our nation get through this crisis.

We are at the end of the global supply chain, so at the start of crises you do not feel the impact. But, as the war drags on, it is our communities that are impacted. We are the most heavily reliant country in the world when it comes to diesel. It's not just our agricultural industry, as Senator McDonald knows; it is our miners—the industries that pay the bills, that pay for Medicare, that pay for politicians, that pay for our roads. Mining and agriculture rely on diesel supplies. And this government is wringing its hands. In the first week of the crisis, what did they do? They blamed Australians: 'Stop getting concerned. We've got it under control'—we've got no plan but we've got it under control. In the second week of the crisis: 'It's the states. What are the states doing?'

Every single day, this government has the powers available to it to make sure the limited supply of fuel that we have gets to where it's needed. Yet Minister Bowen is afraid to use the powers this parliament has given him. We see them, time and time again, coming in here, wringing hands, attacking everyone else and refusing to take responsibility for the great privilege of being the government of this great country, which also comes with great responsibility—and you'd better use it when the crisis comes. You're not always going to get it right, but the very worst thing you can do is do nothing. You have to admit that your own policies have meant we're weaker going into this crisis. Businesses have been going offshore. Meanwhile, you've nailed them on industrial relations and you've nailed them on environmental approvals, so—