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

I rise to take note of answers to questions by Senators Cash, Duniam and Hume. We've been speaking for a number of weeks in this place about the shortage of fuel in this country and the service stations that have run dry either of all fuel or of diesel fuels in particular. I note, in particular, that, when we first raised this issue a number of weeks ago, we were told that we were scaremongering, that we were causing people to panic buy and that we were acting irresponsibly. I do believe I may have even been on take note on the particular day when that occurred.

What has come to pass is the knowledge that, within 24 hours of that and after this parliament had adjourned on Thursday, the Minister for Climate Change and Energy did in fact then say that we did have a crisis in relation to fuel in country. Why am I raising that? I'm raising it because it relates to transparency. It relates to the same lack of transparency we've seen in the answers to all of those different questions that we've asked today. The other side were at pains to talk about talking points. Ultimately the answers to our serious questions about fuel supply in our country came from talking points from the other side. The one thing I want to note is that Australians deserve to know what is going on with fuel supplies; how much we have and if it is enough to sustain what we need to do; and, if we have more supply than we've ever had, why we are not expediting those supplies into the service stations that are empty—exactly what Senator Cash said.

The Prime Minister is holding an address to the nation this evening. When we asked why the Prime Minister wouldn't just tell us today what he had to say, the other side said that we didn't want him to talk to Australians and that we didn't want Australians to hear from their prime minister. In fact, we do. But the Prime Minister is here today in Parliament House, the seat of democracy in our country, and he hasn't told us what he is going to say tonight, because he does not want to be held to account by the people in this chamber. I am told—and I would seek to know whether this is accurate; those opposite might be able to tell us—that tonight's message has been prerecorded. The Prime Minister has already recorded the national address to the country that will be broadcast at 7 pm tonight. If that is actually the case, then we must know why the Prime Minister has seen fit to record a message that he would not make from the dispatch box in the other place.

What does he have to hide if that is actually true? If it is true, then it is shameful. If it is true, the very next time we come back here, he must answer to every single one of us as to why he refused to stand up in his spot as the Prime Minister of our country and, at the dispatch box, tell the whole country what has perhaps already been prerecorded and will be shown to Australians at seven o'clock tonight. Is that so that the rest of us in this chamber and in the chamber in the other place cannot hold him to account? That has become the hallmark of this government: to prevaricate, to hide and to evade until they are ready to tell us what they want us to know rather than the truth.