Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Senate will now consider the proposal from Senator McKenzie, which is shown at item 12 on today's Order of Business:

The Albanese Government's failure to manage fuel supply and distribution, resulting in fuel shortages and service stations running out of fuel, adding to the cost of living pressures already being faced by Australian families and small businesses.

Is the consideration of the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clock in line with the informal arrangements by the whips.

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

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The Albanese Government's failure to manage fuel supply and distribution, resulting in fuel shortages and service stations running out of fuel, adding to the cost of living pressures already being faced by Australian families and small businesses.

If ever you had an example of incompetence from a federal government, you have it right now from the Labor Party here in Canberra. We're heading into what will be the fourth week of a crisis in the Middle East. The failure to prepare, the failure to act in those very first days and weeks, means that Australians who are already saddled with real wages going backwards and mortgage rates going through the roof because the government can't get their spending profile under control and because of the weak economic settings from Jim Chalmers and the cabinet led by Anthony Albanese—Australians are already subjected to cost-of-living pressures that are unprecedented. On top of that, we are unable to respond appropriately to events, dear boy, events, and to issues that are of a global consequence and the geostrategic challenges we are seeing from the war in the Middle East.

What was this chamber told? What were Australians told in the first two weeks? 'We have all the supply you need. Stop panicking. Stop behaving like rational human beings. When you know something is going to be in short supply—something that you need to function as a family, a farmer, a fisherman or a truckie—don't rush out and buy it.' Of course they rushed out and bought it.

The minister stood up here day after day on questions from the National Party and the Liberal Party about what they are doing to help Australians through the crisis. We were told there was nothing to worry about. What did they do? Jim Chalmers wrote a letter to the ACCC. Chris Bowen, who's supposed to be the minister in charge, can't tell us where the supply gaps even are. They're relying on Facebook and frustrated Australians calling in when there is no diesel or no petrol and when service stations are shut.

What's going to happen? It's not just that prices have gone through the roof and that families are struggling with the cost of living. It is that farmers are unable to plant and unable to harvest. Fishermen are not going in. Banana crops are going to be ploughed into the ground because it is more expensive to get them on the back of a truck to Woollies and Coles distribution centres in Brisbane than it is to let them fall and rot on the ground. The trucking industry has pleaded with the government to do something. They're already operating on thin margins. They're having to pass through the largest cost increases in diesel they have ever seen. Even during the Ukraine war, diesel only increased 40c a litre. We have seen it up 80c a litre, and it's climbing. Australians are rightfully concerned.

And what do we know this government hasn't done? The minister refuses to use the powers available to him to intervene in the market and make sure much needed fuel gets to where it's needed to keep trucks on the road, primary producers producing and our mining and fishing industries doing what they keep doing. They've stalled their commitment to biofuels and ethanol production, something which could have actually assisted with increasing supply. We have two states that already have a commitment to putting ethanol into the fuel supply system. We could increase the supply of clean fuel into our transport industry instead of rushing, as the minister has, to actually ensure dirty fuel is available.

And didn't they make a big song and dance about the 100 million litres of fuel being available? That sounded like a big number to Australians. However, we need 135.6 million litres of fuel to operate in this country every single day. The government's not doing enough and Australians deserve better.

Corinne Mulholland (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In my home state of Queensland the car is king, especially in regional Queensland. Farmers, freight operators, Queensland families—they don't have the luxury of alternatives like public transport. They rely on their cars, their trucks and their trailers every single day. And we know Australia's food security is directly tied to our transport security and our regional security, so concerns about fuel supply are being fanned by an increasingly desperate opposition.

Let's be clear: this motion from Senator McKenzie is not about Australians. It is about Senator McKenzie trying to save herself and her party from One Nation. But trying to out-Pauline Pauline is about the dumbest political strategy I've seen since the 'Joh for PM' campaign.

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

Order. Senator Mulholland, I just remind you to refer to those in this chamber by their correct title. You can continue.

Corinne Mulholland (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you. And we've just seen the coalition forces annihilated in South Australia. Nothing says insanity like flirting with the party that is actively eating your base—it's like feeding a crocodile and hoping it doesn't bite your hand off—while doing nothing to address the policy challenges that confront us.

It's important for Australians to understand that Australia is well prepared for the challenges of the conflict in the Middle East and our fuel supply is secure. The Albanese government is looking at every practical measure to shield our nation and household budgets from the worst of global insecurity. Since the conflict commenced three weeks ago the Commonwealth government has taken swift action to support supply and keep fuel moving around the country. That includes releasing up to 20 per cent of our diesel and fuel reserves to help address regional shortages. We have amended national fuel standards to keep more Australian made fuels onshore where they are needed most. We are cracking down on petrol company price gouging because we will not allow Australians to be taken advantage of during these periods of global uncertainty.

And to strengthen coordination across the country, the Albanese government has appointed the Fuel Supply Taskforce Coordinator. This is a new and necessary role with shortages in specific areas due to increased demand in some locations and further supply chain pressures expected in the weeks and months ahead. This task force will lead the coordination work needed to ensure the best outcomes for Australians and Australian businesses.

But let's compare this to the actions or the absolute inaction of those opposite. Opposition leader Angus Taylor should be, and will be, remembered as the worst energy minister in Australian history. Under Angus Taylor's watch, half of Australia's remaining refineries closed. He left Australia more exposed to global shocks than at any time in modern history, and now the coalition has the audacity to come in here and lecture us about fuel supply when it was their decisions that hollowed out our sovereign fuel capacity in the first place.

I'm proud to say that Queensland is home to one of Australia's two remaining oil refineries—one of only two that survived the Liberals last time they were in office—and that is the Ampol refinery in Lytton, in the mighty seat of Bonner in Brisbane. There are more than 550 refinery workers at Ampol, producing petrol, diesel and jet fuel in Queensland. Behind every bowser filling up our cars, our trucks and our machinery, there is a Queensland Ampol worker who has been working around the clock to keep up with current peaks in demand, and they are ably supported by our Queensland transport workers, who have been delivering tanker after tanker right up and down the eastern seaboard. Queensland's oil refinery workers and transport workers don't always get the recognition they deserve, but right now their work is critical to keeping sovereign oil production steady during this period of peak demand.

So I want to give a shout-out to the mighty Australian Workers' Union, which proudly represents the workers of Ampol, because it is the AWU that has worked hard to defend the fuel industry against sustained attacks and the oil refinery closures that occurred under the coalition. The AWU and this side of politics have been vocal about the need to ensure that we keep an oil refinery operating in this country. So you can imagine my surprise when we've seen a conga line of coalition MPs and senators lining up to attack this industry in recent weeks—the same people who said nothing when the refineries were shut. They didn't blink an eye when refineries were shut at Kurnell in New South Wales, Bulwer Island in Queensland, Altona in Victoria and Kwinana in WA. It was the AWU who came to Canberra back in 2020 to save our refinery in Lytton. We should never forget that.

Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Choice in Childcare and Early Learning) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Mulholland, I just remind you—there were a couple of occasions there where you didn't refer to those in the other place, or this place, with the correct title. So could you, next time, make sure you do that.

Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, cop a load of the war parties in this place—the Labor Party, the Liberal Party, the Nationals and One Nation. Cop a load of that unholy alliance wringing their hands about increased fuel prices, including petrol prices, in this country. The hypocrisy is enough to make me vomit. They cheerled a war with Iran, and now, of course, entirely predictably, fuel prices are going up. Colour me surprised! Who could possibly have foreseen that, if you start a big war in the Middle East, petrol prices are going to go up and people are going to feel pain at the bowser?

You cannot support this war and cry crocodile tears about fuel prices. Australians are paying the price for the Labor Party cheerleading this war on day one, when our prime minister was the first global leader to go out and say he thought this war was a good idea. Then, a week later, he joined this country to the war effort against Iran. With every global conflict and every supply shock, Australians are paying for it and the big corporations are fattening their bottom line, all because of the war parties in this place—the Labor Party, the Liberal Party, the Nationals and One Nation. If you want to do something on petrol prices, oppose the war. Call for peace. Stop fighting fantasy crusades with Hegseth, Trump and the war criminal Netanyahu. Oppose the war. Stand for peace.

Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Housing and Homelessness) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The motion before the chamber, moved by Senator McKenzie, is a good one for the chamber to now turn its mind to, because I think Australians would rightly expect that their government would be doing everything it could to ensure that there were reasonable supplies of fuel for industry, households and businesses at this juncture. But you can't take this current debate about the government's failure to manage the fuel shortage out of the broader context in which it sits, and that is that I think that the Australian public have worked out the Prime Minister. He's not a very competent fellow.

But there's another fellow who sits alongside him, called the Treasurer, and he was going around last year saying that he'd read this book called Abundance. It's a book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, a couple of people from America, and their central thesis was that there was too much red tape and there wasn't enough supply, supply of everything: supply of energy, supply of housing—whatever. The good doc—he calls himself Dr Chalmers—said it was 'a ripper' and that it was 'doing the rounds' around the caucus. I suspect that, if he'd uttered that statement in the parliament, he could have misled the parliament, because there's no evidence that anyone in the Labor government has understood that central thesis of abundance: we need more energy, we need more gas, and we will need more condensate oil. These are the things, alongside all the other sources of energy, that are going to fuel the economy on an ongoing basis.

One of the troubling aspects of this whole debate is the failure of our environmental protection laws to facilitate reasonable development—whether it is the Browse development, the North West Shelf development or the Barossa development, where there has been gas and also condensate oil. These have taken seven or eight years to get going, and some of them will never get going. We are a country which is replete with resources. It should never have come to this point where we are relying on unreliable supply chains. The judgement of whether or not a refinery is open or closed is quite separate from whether or not the country has done everything it can to make the most of its resources and to make the most of its opportunities.

I think it's very clear that, after four long years of Labor, they have let these environmental approvals completely undermine the development of new resources. That is very clear. The government would say, apart from it being misleading in relation to understanding the truth about abundance, that it has passed environmental laws and has fixed the EPBC laws. These EPBC laws give the Commonwealth a planning control, which has held back these resource developments that would've been needed today. They would've given us more petroleum. They say they've passed laws, but the detail of those laws is in the regulations. The matters of national significance, which are at the heart of the seven- to eight-year delays in relation to the development of gas and condensate oil, are yet to be determined, so it is unsurprising, perhaps, that we sit here at this four-year mark of this government, look at their record and see that, in relation to the environmental approvals, there is no improvement.

The details are in the regs, and, because Minister Watt has given himself godlike powers, he will effectively determine what these rules look like. It won't be the parliament deciding what the matters of national significance will be in detail, and it's the detail that matters here. It will be one minister. So we'll have more delay, more uncertainty and fewer approvals of essential resources developments. That's the point here: Australia should've had more gas and more oil—more everything—right now. We haven't had it, because of these environmental approvals, which are not right. The balance is not right. Of course we want to protect the environment, but we've got to get the supply out there. We haven't had that, and we've got no real certainty that we'll get it under this government.

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

In June 2021, I said:

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 the fuel security of our daily transport needs: 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.

And that's exactly what's happening at the moment. One Nation was the first party to bring up fuel security in the current crisis in this federal parliament. The Labor Albanese government has been flying by the seat of its pants.

They said, 'There's no shortage,' then guess what? There is a shortage. 'There's no crisis,' then there is a crisis. 'There's no rationing,' then: 'Hang on a minute. Now we should send a message that everyone should work from home.' How would that work? If I still had my fish and chip shop, would I have a drive-through past my home window so people could pick it up? How about all the police, paramedics, nurses, truckies, grocery stores, retailers—all those people? Are they going to work from home? This has not been planned. You have no idea how to run the country in a crisis like this, and it's disgraceful that it's getting to a stage now where the farming sector can't get the fuel. Even last Thursday, the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, said:

Every single ship that was due to land here has landed here.

Just three days later on Sunday, energy minister Chris Bowen said:

We're aware of six boats that have been cancelled …

They can't get their story straight, and that's our current prime minister. Remember. To me, he keeps looking like Joe Biden, forgetting what he has done, said or experienced. Heaven help us in this nation because we need to get mining and use our resources and our oil reserves here and get more gas into our economy.

Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to oppose this urgency motion and to call it for what it is. It is not, in fact, grounded in any fact. It is fearmongering dressed up as urgency. Let's get this absolutely straight. What we are seeing are localised disruptions caused by spikes in demand, not a failure of supply. Petrol companies have confirmed their fuel is continuing to arrive in the quantities expected. We have the supply that we need. Australians are following the events in the Middle East and are seeing and feeling the real consequences here at home. The longer that conflict continues, the more pressure that will place on the global economy and, especially, on household budgets here in Australia.

But I also want to be crystal clear. This is a global challenge. It is not a failure of domestic supply. People are being told there's a shortage, so they rush out, fill up, top up and stockpile. In some places, a month's worth of fuel has been sold in just a few days. That is not normal behaviour. That is panic buying. We saw this during COVID. The supply of toilet paper did not just disappear, but everyone buying it at once creates that massive disruption. Like we experienced during COVID, there is no need to stockpile. We should all be taking only what we need so no-one has to go without. Here's the uncomfortable truth for those opposite. When you push claims of shortages that don't exist, you are contributing to that very disruption you are complaining about. That is reckless, and it's regional Australians, farmers and small businesses who feel it first.

Let's actually deal with what the government is doing. We are making sure that fuel keeps moving to where it's needed most. We have released fuel from our reserves, including boosting supply by releasing 20 per cent of baseline stockholdings. We are keeping more fuel here in Australia and temporarily amending the fuel standards so we can get fuel into the market faster. We are working with industry and with states and territories to ensure that supply reaches our regional communities. Following National Cabinet, we have established a Fuel Supply Taskforce led by Anthea Harris to coordinate across governments and industry. This taskforce will drive coordination, provide national oversight of supply and distribution and ensure that fuel is directed to where the demand is highest.

Across the board, this government is taking practical steps to shield Australians from that global uncertainty, and I want to be clear. It is about fuel security. Under this government, fuel is actually held here in Australia, not overseas, not 14,000 kilometres away in Texas. We are above our minimum stockholding obligations with weeks of supply across petrol, diesel and jet fuel. Compare that to those opposite. They closed refineries, they failed to act on stockholding and they stored Australia's fuel overseas. They are the ones that left Australia exposed, and we fixed that.

Now on prices—Australians are concerned when they see prices spike. We've heard about that, and that's understandable. This is an international crisis, not a commercial opportunity. There is no excuse for petrol companies increasing profits at the expense of Australians. That is why we have empowered the ACCC to protect motorists from unfair price rises and why we are increasing penalties for misconduct. Australians should not be treated like mugs at the bowser. Let's be honest. Global instability flows through to the pump, and that is the reality. What matters here at home is how we respond. We are securing supply, we are coordinating nationally and we are enforcing the rules. We are also supporting Australians with cost of living, free health care, tax cuts, cheaper child care, more bulk-billing, urgent care clinics and cheaper medicines, and that's the practical support at this time of global uncertainty.

So let's be clear about this motion. It ignores the absolute facts, it ignores the supply that exists and it ignores the action being taken. And, worse, it risks fuelling panic, which is exactly what's putting pressure on supply. There is enough fuel. Supply is continuing. What Australians need right now is calm, clear information and responsible leadership, not reckless political scare campaigns from those opposite.

Fatima Payman (WA, Australia's Voice) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm sure that I was not alone in breathing a sigh of relief when I heard the Prime Minister speak in Hobart last week. After weeks of uncertainty, Australians learnt that the government had appointed a fuel tsar and a government taskforce. Should we speed up the transition to renewables? Should we build domestic refining capacity? Should we crack down on opportunistic price gouging at the bowser? Should we look at the 52.6c of excise the government collects on every litre of petrol? Nah. Fuel tsar, taskforce—that'll do it. Last week in WA, servo chain Vibe announced it will limit the amount of petrol that customers can buy. Across Perth, petrol prices are as high as $2.60, almost a dollar higher than they were a month ago. The Treasurer said he'll be making hard decisions in the May budget. Listen up, Treasurer. Australians have been making hard decisions every day. They do not need the government to make it harder. (Time expired)

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

Let's start with addressing some of the gross hypocrisy we've heard in this place over the last hour. First of all, hypocrisy No. 1 is from the Greens, who pretend they want to raise more money from gas when they actually want to close down the industry and generate zero tax dollars from gas. Hypocrisy No. 2, of course, is from those directly opposite, the Labor Party, who sat on their hands for weeks knowing that a fuel shock was highly likely. On 25 February, they recalled families of ambassadors and diplomatic staff from the Middle East back to Australia. They knew that there was a high likelihood of a highly risky event in the Middle East, but they did nothing about the situation that would face Australia if, as happened, the Middle East entered conflict and the supplies of crude, in particular, but also refined product became less available.

Then what did we hear from the government once it was clear that there was an issue? Nothing. Crickets. 'There's nothing to see here—no crisis, no problem.' Then we heard them blaming the Australian people. 'It's a demand problem.' I'm sorry, but farmers want to start seeding. Truck drivers want to make sure they can get across the Nullarbor. All the tens of thousands of Australians who rely on driving for their principal form of income and who wanted to secure their jobs, to secure their businesses and to secure their income, naturally, in the face of government inaction, decided to fill up their tanks. This is not the fault of Australians. This is the fault of a government who was asleep at the wheel.

We were standing up in this place and saying—not fearmongering—'We understand there's enough fuel in the system, but why are there these maldistribution issues?' And the government was saying, 'There is no problem. There is no crisis,' when we knew there were fuel stations on the verge of running out of fuel. Now, today, we see 100 stations in New South Wales without any diesel and 35 without any fuel of any sort. And the government appoints a tsar. I cannot imagine a situation where you could have seen a less effectual response from a government than the ones we've seen.

Let's correct a couple of pieces of absolute misinformation that we've seen in this current debate. It was the former government and, in fact, Angus Taylor as minister who actually secured our ability to refine in this country. Mr Acting Deputy President O'Sullivan, I know you will know this, but do you know how much we paid for the fuel that was stored under our name in Texas? We actually didn't pay anything for it. We were paid to store it there because fuel, at that time, had a negative price. Australia was actually paid to have its reserves in the country that is our strongest international ally. What does this government do over the course of an increasingly serious situation with our domestic fuel supply? They seek to blame the Liberal Party—how they manage that is beyond me—whilst they themselves are asleep at the wheel.

Again, you know that I spoke about the risk of force majeure events happening in the fuel supply chain 10 days ago. 10 days ago I was speaking about that, but the minister was saying, 'No crisis here,' and suddenly, today, we have six boats being turned around. Well, 10 days ago, we had force majeure clauses being imposed by refineries in Singapore—our principal supplier of many types of fuel. The idea that those sorts of clauses weren't going to be exercised by shipping companies was ludicrous—a minister incompetent and asleep at the wheel.

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

The question is that the urgency motion moved by Senator McKenzie be agreed to.