Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will quickly make the point to the Senate that the minister's argument is completely undermined by the fact that the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Responding to Exceptional Circumstances) Bill 2026 is retrospective. The minister just got up and said that they need this bill to take action in the next few weeks to secure fuel supply. If it is the case that that's the reason for this bill, why is it retrospective to 1 April? Those things have already happened. There is no urgency to exempt potentially anticompetitive conduct that happened over the past couple of months with a bill that rushes through and completely exempts a major change from the normal review practices of this place. We are happy to work with the government to fix something in the future. We are less happy to absolve the government or any other major corporation from bad behaviour they might have had in the last few weeks. We can consider that with more time. We should have more time. I'm happy to. I've even suggested the government have a quick snap inquiry today. Let's get the ACCC in. We deserve to hear from them, because these powers are very extraordinary and much broader than just the fuel situation we face today.