Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move a motion relating to fuel security, as circulated.

Leave not granted.

Pursuant to contingent notice of motion standing in the name of Senator McKenzie, I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent me moving a motion to provide for the consideration of a matter, namely a motion to give precedence to a motion relating to fuel security.

This morning, Canadian prime minister Carney said:

A country that can't feed itself, fuel itself or defend itself has few options.

The war on Iran and restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz have already resulted in average petrol price increases of 10 per cent. Parts of the Northern Territory are already paying $4 a litre for fuel, and north Australian farmers and miners are having fuel orders rationed to them.

I've heard the scoffing from the government, from those opposite—a complete reluctance to address the reality that is facing people right across Australia, particularly northern Australia: people who are farming, who are mining, who are just trying to get their kids to school. It is not good enough. If Australians are telling you there is a problem, this idea of simply telling Australians there is nothing to worry about is not good enough, and Australians deserve better.

Australia is a global energy superpower, yet we can barely guarantee a month of fuel for our own people. We are currently importing up to 90 per cent of our petrol and diesel through some of the most volatile shipping checkpoints on Earth. Labor's response is to lecture Australians about buying more electric cars. Activist-driven ideology won't keep food on the shelves. It won't keep planes in the air. You cannot run a wheat harvester, a muster, a road train or a regional hospital on batteries, and we certainly can't run them with fuel being rationed into these regions already.

Labor needs to stop its virtue signalling, it needs to stop telling Australians that there's no problem and it needs to start protecting Australians' interests, as a matter of urgency. All we heard today was the government patting Australians on the head, disregarding their queuing for fuel. You cannot buy a jerry can in Townsville. They're calling farmers and graziers 'hysterical'. Really? Is that the response? What a failure of the government—telling Australians there is nothing to worry about, when their lived experience is happening right now. Fuel is being rationed to people who grow food, who mine minerals, and families are queueing.

We know what the impact of this will be at fuel bowsers and at supermarket checkouts. But what will be the result of Brent crude already surging to around $80 a barrel? Barclay's is suggesting that a prolonged conflict or a continued blockade in the Strait of Hormuz will push prices towards $100 to $120 a barrel. And we know that every US$1 increase in the price per barrel will translate to approximately 1c at Australian fuel pumps and around a 0.1 percent to 0.2 per cent increase in headline inflation. This is already a home-grown problem in Australia. Inflation in Australia is already higher than in the rest of the developed world. We have higher costs of living, thanks to government inaction and outrageous spending. Now we're seeing a lack of action on the most important thing that affects all Australians: the availability and affordability of fuel absolutely must be addressed by the government.

Today I have sought to suspend standing orders to debate the urgency of a strategy and a plan for fuel security in this country—right now—and the government has denied me that opportunity. This flies in the face of what every Australian grazier has just been told—to wait for fuel—and the fact that miners now have to plan how they're going to manage their transport requirements. And it will affect the cost of food on supermarket shelves. This is shocking. Where is the government on this? Patting Australians on the head and telling them there is not a problem is not good government. (Time expired)

Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will make a few comments in relation to Senator McDonald's suspension motion. I will probably take the same broad-ranging approach that she did, so I would ask for the same latitude on indulgence. How wonderful it was to have the Prime Minister of Canada here today and see the welcome that he was given here in the parliament by both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. The Leader of the Opposition's comments were welcome. It was good to see him talking about somebody at Oxford or Cambridge—or wherever it was—who he actually did meet. We can trust that we can verify this because there is independent verification of it this time.

In relation to Senator McDonald's substantial resolution and the One Nation and National Party—

Well, we let it go on.

Slade Brockman (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Minister, resume your seat. Senator McKenzie, on a point of order?

Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On relevance, the minister has gone nowhere close to debating the motion on suspension before the chair. As has been noted by the chamber this entire week, whenever non-Labor senators have stood up to debate suspension motions, they have been pulled up by shop stewards one and all on our relevancy to the topic.

Slade Brockman (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKenzie, I will bring the minister back to the matter at hand on the point of order.

Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I did indicate at the beginning that we did not seek to constrain Senator McDonald's contribution because I expect this debate will take its normal course. We took that approach. I expect the chamber to take the same approach.

Slade Brockman (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, this is a debating point now.

Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, I am just indicating what we did.

Slade Brockman (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, resume your seat. I'm happy to rule, but, Senator Cash, I'll give you the call.

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the point of order, let us be clear. Your intention is, quite frankly, irrelevant. The Albanese government side did not raise any points of order in relation to Senator McDonald, which means you condoned what she was saying. We are raising points of order in relation to what you are doing, because you are not, as you always point out to us, directly addressing the suspension.

Slade Brockman (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will remind the minister that we need to direct the matter before the chair. I am happy to rule now. I don't think we need anymore contributions on this. Thank you for your help. I'll bring the minister back to the matter at hand, which is the question of the suspension of standing orders.

Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One good turn deserves another, I suppose. This suspension is not warranted. This government has taken more action in relation to fuel security than any government in a generation. This suspension is not warranted because this government has acted in a practical way. There is, I reported, 1½ billion litres of petrol and three billion litres of diesel for the first time because we've implemented minimum stockholding obligations. There is, of course, as today's visit indicated and also the conflict in the Middle East underscores, the rationale for the government's broader Future Made Australia, our broader critical minerals approach, our broader approach to making sure that we have fuel reserves, not in Texas as Mr Taylor had sort of delivered under the previous government—the El Paso approach—but in Australia, with Australian fuel reserves in Australia.

There is no suspension warranted here because what is really going on is the extreme-right-wing One Nation Party-National Party-Liberal Party approach to this, which is to deceive Australians about what is really going on here. They were silent as church mice while Mr Taylor was the minister for energy. If there was any urgency about this, they would have been up and about then. But there has been deadly silence from the Liberal's best friends, the One Nation Party—absolute silence. They have been abjectly silent over the course of that period and suddenly they have discovered fuel security. After four out of the six refineries closed, they act now as if Australia has reserves of crude oil that would make a difference! Do you know what is making a difference for ordinary households? It's being able to access electric vehicles. They drive past petrol stations, and see the signs on the petrol stations. That is a fuel security measure right there, for Australia and Australians. It takes the pressure off petrol and diesel. And those families themselves get to access the benefits of that.

This suspension is not warranted, because behind it sits a nasty, mean-spirited, disruptive, dishonest campaign—

Slade Brockman (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, resume your seat. Senator McKenzie?

Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He doesn't have to be our friend, he doesn't have to like us, but he shouldn't be reflecting so adversely on the senators.

Slade Brockman (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, I think it would help the chamber if you directed your comments through the chair rather than directly across the chamber at individuals. However, I don't think there was a matter that needed withdrawing. Minister, you have the call.

Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Of course, Mr Taylor's leadership of this portfolio is not the most embarrassing thing about Mr Taylor; I accept that that's true. Out of all the failures in his record and out of all of the reasons why Australians should be sceptical and scared of Mr Taylor's leadership of the Liberal Party, his failure on energy security, his failure on fuel security, is not the greatest reason but it's a pretty good reason to give this bloke a big miss.

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

Standing orders should be suspended for this matter, because Australians are very worried right now about our fuel security. I credit Senator McDonald for bringing this issue forward, because it gives us the opportunity here to explain to the Australian people what is being done to help them.

It is a little disappointing to me that the government won't take this opportunity to do that. If they were taking action and if they were able to provide reassurance to the Australian people, you'd think they'd welcome this motion so that they could explain in detail to the Australian people exactly what they are doing. But as we've seen in question time and just now, we have a minister here in this chamber, with some responsibility on this issue, who continues to deflect from the real issues and to just throw the most hysterical rants about the other side of politics, and all these conspiracy theories, and right-wing actors—who are the ones, apparently, causing the anxiety in the Australian public.

No. The reason the Australian people are anxious about their energy and fuel security is that this government has no credibility as to their statements about energy and climate policy. This government said that they'd cut electricity bills by $275 for Australians. They didn't do it. This government said that they would lower gas prices, when they hauled us all here before Christmas to impose the most onerous regulatory regime we've ever seen in this country. That didn't happen. And so, because this government hasn't been able to abide by its own promises, which it has made, the Australian people are understandably a little sceptical now about any statement the government makes. It would be better if the government could simply take a calm and reassuring approach to this issue, instead of resorting to hysteria as the minister has done today and through this week in the Senate.

In the Middle East conflict about 20 years ago, there was a character that popped up, that many of us remember, who became named 'Baghdad Bob', who would do these press conferences and say, 'Everything's fine in Baghdad; everything's under control,' and meanwhile, US tanks were rolling past behind him. Well, now we don't have Baghdad Bob; this time we have Ayatollah Ayres! Ayatollah Ayres is in here saying, 'Everything is fine! Don't worry! There's no problem! Petrol prices might be too high—

Slade Brockman (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Canavan—

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

Oh, he's a bit sensitive!

Slade Brockman (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Canavan, I was going to rule.

Senator Canavan, please refer to people by their correct titles. And I would remind you that we do need to be relevant to the matter, which is the suspension of standing orders.

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

Fair cop. Well, we need to be relevant here, because I would like the minister to just tone it down. We just have this opportunity to support this motion. The issue that doesn't seem to come up or is not being explained here by the government at all is exactly what these stockpiles are and exactly what our requirements are.

Our requirements are actually not to hold a minimum amount of supply needs. The international agreement we have signed is to have a minimum amount of net imports. The reason we are more vulnerable today than we were 20 or 30 years ago is that our net imports have surged as our production of oil has dropped. At the start of this century, 25 years ago, we produced enough raw petroleum for 96 per cent of our needs. That is now below 50 per cent, because the Bass Strait has dried up. That's why we are more vulnerable. It's not the refineries that the Labor Party continues to distract about. It happened a few years ago. It's not these arbitrary amounts of fuel we have in a particular barrel in a particular location. The reason we are more vulnerable is that we are producing less oil, and the reason we are producing less oil is that we have put up massive barriers to the development of oil and gas in this country.

We have one state, Victoria, that has a ban on fracking across its whole state. They have some of the most prospective oil resources in that state because the Bass Strait, where we used to get it from, extends under the land area of Victoria as well. We know there are liquid fuels in the area, but because they ban fracking, they are untouchable. They are not going to be commercial without fracking. We've banned fracking across the whole area of the Canning Basin in north-western Australia, which is another long-term prospective oil resource for this country. It's not hard to work out that, if we don't drill for oil and gas, we will become vulnerable to the Strait of Hormuz and the conflicts that happen around the world.

Look at what the US has done. The US, under different administrations, has taken a different approach. They have drilled; they have fracked. They are now the world's biggest and largest oil producer in the world. Under the Biden administration, the United States produced more oil in one year than any country ever has in history. Meanwhile, we lock up our country on some futile naive mission to change the temperature of the globe, and we make all Australians angry, vulnerable, frustrated and anxious that they now have to pay more than $2 a litre at the pump.

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

Here we have the three war parties falling over themselves to back in and support this illegal war, and now they've got the audacity to complain about the obvious impacts of that war. Pick a side; you can't have it both ways. We've heard today that our nation has let US planes refuel here. So much for 'no resourcing or any support for this war'—they are fuelling here on our shores. We're letting US bases be used on our shores, and the Foreign minister wouldn't answer any questions about whether any of our personnel were on the military vessels that then bombed other vessels in the Indian Ocean. It is a black box here, with the three war parties falling over themselves to back in this illegal conflict, and now they are belatedly boosting for the fossil fuel corporations who will profiteer off ordinary people's pain as this conflict progresses.

Senator Canavan belled the cat there, because this motion is a stalking horse for the conservatives to say they want more coal, oil and gas ripped out of the ground. They've never met the climate crisis, and they are not about to start listening to science now. The talk of removing the fracking bans on good-quality farmland was very telling from a party that used to represent farmers and now just takes donations from Santos.

Rather than falling over themselves to open up more fossil fuels in a climate crisis to make more money for these greedy companies that don't pay their fair share of tax, they should instead stop giving these massive polluting companies the freebies that they get every year from the taxpayer—the $8-odd billion in fuel tax credits. Apparently, we're in a government spending crisis. There's a tip for you—get rid of those fuel tax credits for those big polluting companies that already don't pay their fair share of tax, that get much of this gas royalty-free, that have their hands out for further subsidies and are now profiteering from an illegal war. We should be imposing a 25 per cent gas tax on them, to boot, and turning off the tap of that public money. You want to talk about fuel security? Why don't we electrify our transport as much as possible? That is the solution for fuel security. It will help us address the climate crisis and it will help us make sure our needs are met.

The needs that these folk want to meet are the needs of the rich gas companies that don't pay tax, that have their hands out for the taxpayer and that are now profiteering off an illegal war. Fossil fuel shares have surged since this war began five days ago. The Woodside share price is up by almost 10 per cent. You've got Santos' share price—you might have heard me mention it's a common donor to the National Party. Santos' share price is up by 7.8 per cent. That's an almost $6 billion increase in market capital for Woodside. They are making bank off an illegal war, and this is on top of the fact that they get public money in a cost-of-living crisis. When ordinary people are finding it hard to pay their way, to fill up the groceries, to pay the rent and to fill up the car, the wealthy and tax-dodging gas corporations who are polluting like there's no tomorrow are getting freebies out of the taxpayer, and gas corporations will continue to profiteer off this war, just like they did off the back of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine.

Today, we saw QatarEnergy declare a force majeure in order to back out of gas supply contracts. We say that gas corporations should not be rewarded for this greed and that we've got to have some action in the next budget to turn off the tap of taxpayer support to polluting companies. End those fuel tax credits and those PRRT loopholes which make a mockery of our resources, giving them away for free to these polluting profiteering companies. Civilians are being killed, and people are suffering; meanwhile, greedy gas corporations are using Trump and Netanyahu's illegal war to simply line their pockets. I've already mentioned that Woodside has made almost $6 billion since the first bomb dropped. While the rest of us are mourning the death of schoolchildren, those big fossil fuel companies are laughing all the way to the bank. And this mob has the audacity to both back the war and yet, at the same time, want to boost for further profits for the same polluting companies that already get billions of dollars in hand-outs, don't pay their fair share of tax and are making bank off an illegal war. For shame!

Malcolm Roberts (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This matter is urgent for three reasons. Firstly, the truth is not coming out. We want it out. It has to come out immediately before more people die. Secondly, fuel security—the people are getting ripped off at the bowser because of fuel volatility in prices and supply. I want to correct the record here, and I also want to point out, yet again, how urgent this is.

This is from Senator Hanson, Leader of One Nation, from a Hansard from 2021:

I rise to speak on the Fuel Security Bill 2021. When I came into the Senate in 2016 I raised the importance of fuel security for all Australians.

For a decade, she has been on about it, and I have been hearing her for that full decade and before. She goes on to say:

This and previous governments have continually failed to meet the internationally mandated 90 days stockpile of fuel for the people of this nation. That means this government has put at risk—

that was the Morrison government, but you're doing the same now—

the fuel security of our daily transport needs—

daily transport needs of the people watching this at home—

our defence, our aviation industry, our mining and our commuter needs. Without this internationally mandated 90-day stockpile of fuel, Australia risks coming to a grinding halt. My concerns were echoed by Senator Jim Molan when he entered the parliament in … 2017.

Not only has she done that, but she's advocated for a pipeline across the country to bring some of the world's largest gas reserves to the east coast cities of Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney and get fuel from gas to liquid fuel, diesel and petrol, conversion. And what have you done? Nothing

What Senator Ayres did, through you, Chair, on Monday, when I asked this question and started this talk about fuel security—which we must discuss—is try to conflate it by saying he had 115 per cent, 120 per cent, 150 per cent. Forget the arithmetic; he was misleading, because, when we went and did our research, we found out he had 115 per cent of 24 days, which is about 26 days. We realised he was misleading the people of Australia and misleading the representatives in this chamber, because he was saying we had 115 per cent of reserves when we had less than 30 per cent of reserves, according to the International Energy Agency. Then, when he was caught out by my question on Monday, what did he do? He focused entirely on Angus Taylor, who has nothing to do with this at the moment.

This is what the government try to do. They try to deflect, denigrate and mislead, and they try to hide it. That's why we need this, if I follow Senator McKenzie's call—I'll read clause (b). It calls on the government to take 'urgent action to avoid a fuel crisis that will add to Australia's already existing, home-grown inflation pressures'. Fuel stocks are low. We are not arguing they are low under Mr Taylor as the energy minister. That's for another day. We want to sort the problem out now. We need truth, we need security, and we need absolute facts out in the open. That's why we need this inquiry. We can't get the answer by asking the minister, Chris Bowen, or Senator Wong.

Volatility of fuel prices is cut by having reserves at 90 days. That is a fact. The people of Australia will pay through the neck. The other thing is security. The whole country stops when we run out of diesel—farms, mines, transport. Every single thing in this country relies upon transport indirectly or directly, and, when the trucks stop, Australia stops. You should know that from listening to Glenn Sterle, a truckie himself. This is about security. It's also about long-term security, getting a pipeline across the country, as Senator Hanson has requested and suggested for decades now, to convert our gas fuels into liquid fuels, diesel and petrol in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. We also note that the United States has dropped net zero and the Paris agreement and is now producing more hydrocarbon fuels. Why? Because they are essential for human life as we know it.

Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support Senator McDonald's suspension of standing order and her motion on fuel security. The fact is that the war in the Middle East will see a rise in fuel prices across our country. The failure of the government to deal with what is happening at petrol browsers right now, this week, with fuel that is already onshore, is unconscionable. The fact is that this will be a layered and cumulative impact of the home-grown inflation that is right at the feet of Treasurer Jim Chalmers. It means Australians are struggling with fuel increases, energy bill increases and insurance bill increases. The cost of housing has gone through the roof because of inflation that this government has caused. And, on the top of that, you are now going to have inflationary pressures as a result of fuel price increases.

What is the Labor Party doing? Nothing. The way to get these cost-of-living pressures down is to cut government spending. We're now at the highest proportion of government spending across our economy in 40 years. That's what's driving up inflation, that's what's driving up interest rates, and that's what's driving up Australia's cost-of-living pressures. You've got the budget. Use it.

Slade Brockman (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the suspension motion moved by Senator McDonald be agreed to.