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

I am an optimist. It's important to understand that, because otherwise I wouldn't have believed that the government could have got this fuel crisis so very, very wrong. Last week people started calling me—my family, my friends and business operators across regional Queensland. Did I think they should go and fuel up? Did I think they should store fuel? Of course, that rapidly turned into what we've seen play out, which is people desperately trying to secure fuel to go fishing, to harvest or to drive their truck to deliver food to supermarkets. Right across Australia we've seen households—mums—filling up their cars urgently and buying jerry cans from Bunnings to make sure that they had enough fuel.

So it was entirely reasonable to think the government could have planned for this and that the energy minister might have had his roundtable 10 days ago, not on Tuesday of this week. Other countries, like Peru, cancelled school or directed government officials to work from home—anything to reduce the amount of fuel demand in those countries. But in Australia we did nothing.

The government is very fond of quoting the National Farmers' Federation, so I will do the same this afternoon:

The National Farmers' Federation says reports from its members across Australia show farmers and fishers in regional communities are increasingly struggling to secure fuel, putting food security and animal welfare at risk.

NFF President Hamish McIntyre said that increases in demand had put pressure on fuel retailers in regional areas.

"While overall national liquid fuel supplies may remain sound, impacts are being acutely felt in regional communities right now, especially among independent retailers, who rely on the 'spot market' for supplies," Mr McIntyre said.

…   …   …

The NFF noted overnight developments internationally aimed at stabilising supply, with the International Energy Agency announcing the release of 400 million barrels of oil from emergency reserves to help ease global disruptions. The NFF—

at the point of writing—

awaits Minister Bowen's response to this request.

You could not make this up, and I went back to check the minister's media release just to be sure that I had it right. The minister has announced today:

In order to assist with getting more supply, and secure downwards pressure on prices, I am temporarily amending Australia's fuel quality standards to allow higher sulfur levels for the next 60 days.

It starts well, doesn't it?

This will allow around 100 million litres a month of new petrol supply that would otherwise have been exported to be blended instead into Australian domestic supply.

'Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.' Then it specifically talks about supporting 'the wholesale spot market that supports independent distributors and harvesters'. I don't know if I should be the one to break to the minister and the government: most harvesters—in fact, I would suggest, all harvesters—don't use petrol. They use diesel.

Dave Sharma (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Even I knew that!

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

Well done, Senator Sharma! You are smarter than the average bear! You're certainly smarter than the minister for energy, because—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McDonald, withdraw.

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

You're certainly smarter than the average bear, Senator Sharma.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McDonald, you still have to withdraw.

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

Thank you very much for your advice. I withdraw that comment. So we have just had more petrol released into the market when Australian farmers and fishers need diesel. How much more wrong can the government get this fuel crisis? We are now 11 days into it, and the government has failed to take even the most simple of actions, such as holding a roundtable last week, taking action like other countries around the world did. And here we are today providing more petrol to people who need diesel. I am truly perplexed at the advice the government is getting about the most simple standards. Even Senator Sharma knows that we need diesel, not petrol. The Australian government is absolutely tin-eared to the crisis. It's going to lead to food security challenges when there is no food delivered to supermarket shelves. What a failure of the Labor government! (Time expired)

Senate adjourned at 17:45