Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of answers to questions that I asked of the Minister representing the Treasurer.

From the moment that Trump and Netanyahu's war began, fuel companies started jacking up their prices, increasing the price of fuel that they already had in their tanks. There was no shortage of petrol or diesel at that point; there was just plain old price gouging. Yet Labor's solution is not to stop price gouging or to implement powers to force petrol stations to immediately pass on the price reduction. Instead, we're told to rely on those big fuel companies to, out of the goodness of their hearts, just pass on those savings to the consumer without any obligation that this government has placed on them to do so.

On what planet is that good enough or reassuring enough for the community? War has already made billionaires and big corporations richer. It's just another business model for them. People are already at their limit. Before this war, the cost-of-living crisis was deep and real, and now it's even worse, so it is critical that the government pulls all the levers that it can before things get even worse. But, for some reason, the only cost-of-living relief measure that the government are pulling the levers on is direct relief for business. Where is the cost-of-living relief going directly to ordinary people, things like free public transport? People need real cost-of-living relief directly, not funnelled through big businesses with no obligation to pass it on.

Prices are going up everywhere, not just at the bowser, but Labor are backing big business and not people. Businesses are getting that immediate, direct help, but people are told to wait and just hope that the big corporations will be kind enough to pass on the savings to them—like that's ever happened before. A cut to the fuel excise, which those fuel corporations might pass on in a couple of weeks time, will do nothing to help people who are pulling their hair out and making difficult decisions at the checkout today. People, not petrol companies, need help now.

We need short- and long-term solutions—cost-of-living relief now and electrification in the medium and long term for our genuine energy independence. We should not be so dependent on foreign fossil fuels. Whether or not you can fill your car to get to work shouldn't be dependent on whether Trump is dragging us into yet another illegal forever war.

But this is business as usual from the three war parties. Labor, the coalition and One Nation are united in their support for this war, united in spending hundreds of billions on nuclear submarines that we're probably never going to see and united in support of an increasingly erratic US president. And Labor want to argue that we're defensive and not offensive. Get a grip. The US and Israel do not distinguish. Australian personnel and our resources are embedded in this conflict. We are involved. In the last 24 hours, Donald Trump has started attacking his alleged allies and called on them to attack Iran and take Iranian oil alongside the US and Israeli military. Where is the pushback on that lunatic suggestion from our government? We have heard absolute crickets. We need a sober reassessment of our relationship with the United States. Australians are realising more and more clearly every day that maybe it's not such a great idea to be tied at the hip to Donald Trump and that, with agreements like AUKUS, we have contracted far too much of our sovereignty out to the US—particularly a US that is led by Donald Trump.

AUKUS was a dud to deal from day one. It's bad for the community, it's bad for the environment, it's bad for Australia's place in the world and it's bad for our budget bottom line. Australia's resources and our people should be withdrawn, and all pressure should be placed on Trump to end this war. We must get out of that dud deal of AUKUS and start investing in helping our community with genuine cost-of-living relief, not following Donald Trump into whatever crazy idea he has in a week or two's time. Bring our people home, start delivering some cost-of-living relief directly to people and get out of that dud AUKUS deal.

Question agreed to.