James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The need for the Albanese Labor Government to outline how it will ensure fuel is delivered to Australians where it is needed and rule out heavy-handed mandates.

We are in the middle of a fuel crisis. It's not being helped by a prime minister who is living in this self-induced bubble of Canberra and the world in which he likes to mix.

I don't think the Prime Minister or the members of the Labor Party who sit in the cabinet realise how tough people are doing it out there. We've got a cost-of-living crisis, and on top of the cost-of-living crisis we now have a fuel crisis, which is only adding to the pain that Australians are feeling when they pull out their purse or wallet and get their card out and do a swipe, or when they pay on their phone for items. Everything is costing more—and we all know the maxim 'Labor will always cost you more'—because of the Labor government. We note the government has announced a temporary cut to the fuel excise for three months—and that relief is welcome. I note that is something the coalition first called for, and it got pooh-poohed by the commentariat and also by some members of the Labor Party as not being needed—which just goes to show how out of touch this Labor government is.

What is surprising is that this fuel crisis should not have come as a surprise to the Labor government. Anyone with half a modicum of interest in world affairs would have known and seen that the United States and Israel have a particular interest in relation to the nuclear capability of Iran. Iran is in the middle of the Middle East, and the Middle East is famous for many, many good things, including oil. In particular, 20 per cent of the world's oil goes through the Strait of Hormuz. If a conflict were to kick off over there, it would obviously have an impact upon Australia. This government didn't do any of the planning in relation to that.

If you fail to plan, you effectively plan to fail. If the government were taking out diplomatic staff from the Middle East from certain countries five, six or seven weeks ago, why weren't they making similar plans in relation to ensuring we had fuel security in this country?

The issue goes to this. If you're in regional Queensland, if you're in regional Australia, your access to fuel under this government is quite limited because across the country hundreds of petrol stations remain dry. What this means is that farmers can't run their machinery. Their seeding plans are at risk. This is not just an economic issue; it's actually a security issue in terms of the security risk of the lack of fuel and in terms of food security for Australia. It is well known that Australia is a food bowl and that, with a population of 28 million, we can comfortably grow the food for three times our population. However, this is not going to be the case if farmers cannot plant the seeds. So supply chains are under real pressure.

Without fuel, parents can't get to school. At the Liberal National state council on the weekend, the feedback from state council delegates from around the state—