Tyron Whitten (WA, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

One Nation was the first party to call this fuel shortage a crisis. We asked how much fuel we had on hand, and we were all told there wasn't a problem—just right-wing extremism. The government is playing catch-up. Labor has taken a year to implement One Nation's 2025 election policy to halve the fuel excise. In a crisis, Labor's cuts don't do enough. Our fuel resilience policy will cut the fuel excise completely. Today we have a bill, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Fuel Excise Relief) Bill 2026, being rushed forward through our parliament because the Albanese Labor government is panicking. Australians are getting hit in the hip pocket. The price of diesel has nearly doubled in Australia. This is an increase more than three times the global average, and Labor offers Australians a 26c reduction. Our policy will cut the full 52c per litre. We will provide twice as much relief at the bowser.

Our policy will also cut the GST paid on the fuel excise. Currently, the Albanese government is profiting by $300 million a month from the soaring spike in fuel prices while Australians are struggling. As the pain at the pump increases, so does the government's GST take on every litre. The government has halved the fuel tax, but it is still applying a 10 per cent GST on top of the total sale. It's an absolute disgrace.

We have seen the price of diesel nearly double over the last few weeks, and that's if you can get it. This bill won't be doing a thing to crack down on the supply manipulation by big oil companies. That's why One Nation has called for the Liquid Fuel Emergency Act to be triggered so supply can be forced out into the regions, bringing down prices for everyone.

Over 500 service stations across Australia have run out of fuel. In my home state of WA, the acting shire president of Esperance revealed that fuel arriving in the town port has been trucked 1,400 kilometres, and it travels in tankers all the way to Perth before coming all the way back down to Esperance so it can be available at their local service stations. Our families are hurting. Our farmers are hurting. Our WA farmers are seeding and putting crops in at much greater cost. It's a double hit if they can't get access to enough fertiliser due to availability and cost. If our farmers aren't getting the fuel and support they need, where's our food going to come from?

Australia has got to have a better plan. Our primary goal now is to advocate a resilient sovereign fuel industry. One Nation's plan is clear: trigger the national fuel emergency act; force supply to be delivered to regional areas and independent distributors; prioritise defence and essential services; drop the fuel excise completely; provide GST tax relief on fuel for three months; suspended the road user charges; develop policies that allow Australia to find, process and distribute fuel; refine our fuel and build new refineries; increase our fuel storage capacity—strategic fuel storage must be controlled by Australia on Australian shores; consider a national reserve with crude oil companies to prioritise Australia—the needs of Australia must be catered to first; and remove impediments to using domestically produced fuel.

Successive Labor and coalition governments have failed to protect Australia by allowing our refineries to close. The BP oil refinery in Kwinana closed in 2022. It had a capacity of 140,000 barrels per day. It was running at a profit and didn't need upgrading. At the time, BP was run by a bloke called Bernard Looney—oh, the irony! He became CEO in February 2020 and served until September 2023, during which time he spearheaded a strategic pivot towards renewable energy and set net zero ambitions. In effect, the Kwinana refinery was sacrificed on the altar of ideology.

This fuel crisis has been created by decades of net zero obsession destroying our ability to use our own resources. One Nation will abolish net zero and stop the billions in subsidies that Australians are paying for wind turbines. This will not only reduce power bills but also put $30 billion back in the pockets of Australians by abolishing the climate change department. For decades, One Nation has been saying we need to be self-reliant. We need to regain our sovereignty. We must take back control of our country. One Nation continues to set the agenda in this parliament and in this country.