Maria Kovacic (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

This is a significant problem that Australians are facing. The cost of fuel and the fuel shortages in our country have impacted Australians in a very big way, and this isn't an isolated impact. I think that, if we hadn't had the cost-of-living struggles in our country that we've had for the last four years, if we hadn't had the housing crisis in our country that we've had for the last four years and if we hadn't had the broader inflationary challenges in this country that we've had for the last four years, as well as the increase in interest rates and the increase in rents, maybe this would have been felt differently by Australians. But, on top of everything else that Australians are paying more for, this is just another punch in the guts.

I did the math on it before. The average price of diesel fuel in February was $1.82 a litre. The average price this week is $3.07 a litre. On a 60-litre tank, that's an increase from about $110 to about $185. That's an almost 70 per cent increase in a matter of weeks. I know those opposite will say that it's not their fault and that it is a global shock, and I acknowledge that that is the case. But the issue is that this is on top of all of the other homegrown shocks, and Australians have just had enough. They can't take it. This is yet another thing that they have to cop and that they have to deal with. Every time that they feel that they're getting one step ahead, they have to take two steps back.

It's particularly hard for young Australians who are struggling to start out. I've said it over and over, and I'm going to say it again. They believe, no matter how hard they work, they will never be able to own their own home. There's actually nothing there for them in that social contract. They're missing out across the board. That's a failure of the people in this place. We have to do better with that. We have to change that. We want to restore those standards of living for Australians. We want to restore the dream of homeownership.

The other thing I want to reflect on in my comments—and I acknowledge that the government has now decided to adopt the coalition's policy of reducing the fuel excise by some 25 cents a litre—is that, a couple of weeks ago in this chamber, when we talked about fuel shortages and when we said that petrol stations were running out of petrol and diesel, those opposite laughed at us and said we were scaremongering and that we were causing people to panic buy. But it was true. We were being told by people, particularly in regional areas at that point in time, that they were going to petrol stations and there was no fuel. Those opposite denied it; they said it wasn't true. The Minister for Climate Change and Energy and the Prime Minister said: 'It's not true; it's scaremongering. You're causing people to panic buy.' Within 24 hours of that, the energy minister came out and said, 'Actually, we do have a crisis.'

The point I want to make here is that, for some reason, those opposite—the Prime Minister particularly and, in this case, his energy minister—have their heads in the sand when we have significant problems, and they are in denial about the scale and the significance of those problems until they can no longer deny them. Australians deserve a government that is proactive, will lead and will plan to navigate challenges like those which we are facing today. They do not deserve a government that has its head in the sand, particularly on the back of all of the cost-of-living pressures that Australians have been under for the last four years. Not least among those is yet another interest rate rise, announced a few weeks ago, which, once again, means a greater impost on family budgets, a greater impost on small businesses that are trying to work out how to make ends meet and a greater impost on the tradie who's trying to work out how much diesel they can afford to put in their truck to go to the next job, on top of the soaring prices of all the materials that they need, whether they be a plumber, an electrician, a carpenter, a bricklayer or a builder. This is the reality that Australians are facing, and this government needs to step forward and lead proactively, not reactively.

Question agreed to.