Kerrynne Liddle (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

This is a government that has mastered the art of blaming others, even though it's been in government for four years. The actual issue is not the inventory of Bunnings but is what the Prime Minister said and why. On Saturday, at a press conference in Sydney, the Prime Minister told Australians that Bunnings had run out of jerry cans—not that it had a lot of them, not that it was running low, but that it had run out. A spokeswoman for Bunnings then told news.com.au just yesterday, plainly and unambiguously, that Bunnings has not run out of jerry cans. In fact, worse than that, Bunnings said that telling people that they've run out of jerry cans was actually more likely to trigger panic buying.

When Senator Wong was asked about this today, what did we get? What did we get from a government that promised Australians it would be all about accountability and transparency? It blamed consumers again. First, consumers in Australia bought too much fuel. This was all about them; there was not a supply issue. It's now about jerry cans. Australians are buying too many jerry cans. Again, it's all about someone else. If the government cannot get the facts right on jerry cans, how on earth can Australians have any confidence that they get the facts right on fuel supply, on pricing and on what is actually happening in servos around the country?

Today, the number of fuel stations out of one type of fuel was actually up, not down. Right now in South Australia, my home state, they're paying between $3.19 and $3.26 for diesel. In Port Augusta, that's around $3.30. It's $2.59 for unleaded petrol, and people are driving around to make sure they can find the fuel they need. In the APY Lands, fuel costs are approaching $4 a litre for diesel. They are looking soon at shutting off bowsers within a week to preserve what little fuel remains for diesel generators and essential transport—not for cars but for generators, for their very survival. These are people in remote areas that actually do need and often travel with jerry cans. So don't tell them there are none.

While the Prime Minister is making inaccurate claims about jerry cans at Bunnings in Sydney, communities in remote South Australia are days away from losing fuel. I want to talk more about them in this place—the forgotten people, the people out in the regions. They are worried about how to get from A to B. They are worried this Easter holidays about where they get fuel when they're at their destination. Can they even get back? That's the reality when you actually talk to people on the ground, and they've had not a single assurance from this government that the fuel will be there. That's if they can already afford to get where they wanted to go. How out of touch can you possibly be?

On the move to expand parliament, can you believe that there's even a conversation other than security of Australians in this country and about fuel? We don't need to be talking at this time about more parliamentarians in this place, particularly at a cost of around $600 million. Australians, you better believe it: this government's priorities are wrong.

Question agreed to.