Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Whiteaker, for that question. The first thing I should say particularly for regional communities is that yesterday, on top of a series of other measures that have been undertaken over the last three or four weeks, the Albanese government halved fuel excise. In terms of regional communities, where more fuel is used, obviously, and households have disproportionately lower incomes than in big cities, this has a disproportionately positive effect. We on this side are very proud of that decision.

Secondly, we've cut the heavy vehicle road user charge to zero for three months and will delay the planned increase in that charge by an additional six months. Logistics for regional communities make up a larger proportion of goods prices, so it will have a downward effect on what is happening in terms of goods prices in country communities where, because of increases in the cost of fuel, they are facing sharper increases than city communities are facing.

On fertilisers, our new EFA powers will enable suppliers to meet uncontracted demand, keeping the domestic fertiliser market well supplied and flexible—as flexible and well supplied as we can make it—to meet farmers' changing needs. These are challenging times for Australian agriculture on the back of a series of record years in terms of production, broadly, in Australian agriculture. We are determined to do what we can as a government, working with the states and territories, to support our farming communities, particularly as we approach—