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

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Senator Ayres. Experts are now warning that Labor's fuel failure is choking supply and driving up the price of essential building materials like PVC pipes, the pipes that go into every new home and every stretch of basic infrastructure. Industry is experiencing widespread price rises of up to 35 per cent. Labor's failures are blowing out the cost and timing of building critical new homes Australians desperately need, piling more pressure onto Labor's cost-of-living crisis. With Australians already smashed by rising rents, rising mortgages and rising prices, what is the government doing to stop its fuel failure driving up the costs of essential PVC pipes so that the bowsers running dry under Labor today don't become Bunnings shelves running dry tomorrow?

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

I suppose what I object to from the senator from Queensland is that implicit in that question—and it's gone with some of the questions that have come from over here—is that there are challenges in terms of fuel that are because the government in Iran has blockaded the Strait of Hormuz. There are—and we will come to these questions—challenges in price terms but not immediate shortages in terms of PVC piping. That is an opportunity for Australians to pull together, not to blame the government to seek a partisan opportunity in terms of how we respond to a set of national challenges.

This government, whether it's in terms of petrol or diesel or PVC or urea or fertiliser supplies more broadly, has acted in a way that no previous government has to secure in terms of fuel supplies a minimum stockholding obligation that is larger than it has been for 15 years, because the government that was run by this lot over here that you vote with every day of the week in your own peculiar uniparty failed to act. In fact, what they did, worse than that, was close down four out of six refineries. Mr Taylor said, 'I kept the last two open,' the day before yesterday. 'I kept the last two open.' The only thing he was missing was time. If he got five more minutes, he would have closed those down too.

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

Senator Bell, first supplementary?

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

One Nation has called for urgent cost-of-living relief for families and businesses in the form of a GST exemption on building materials—

Hon. Senators:

Honourable senators interjecting—

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

Senator Bell, I'm very sorry. There are interjections across the chamber. I need—

Senator Henderson, you were one of the people I was referring to. There needs to be quiet so I can hear the question.

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

Minister, will the government back this practical, measured response, to reduce the cost of building goods by 10 per cent and give relief to Australians struggling with crippling housing and construction costs caused by the Labor government's fuel and energy failures?

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

Well! The idea!

It is certainly true that, as to what we're seeing, particularly in the construction industry, particularly around PVC piping—I know this not only from the information that my department provides to me, but from the phone calls that I get from friends across the building industry in regional New South Wales, who, of course, are getting notices that say that prices are going up—prices are going up. There are no immediate shortages, but prices are going up. And that is a problem for people in the construction industry.

What is not true is to put those price rises at the feet of anyone but the murderous dictatorship in Iran. That is unpatriotic. That is un-Australian. That is dishonest. That is disingenuous. That is very, very unhelpful, if our job is to pull together for Australians— (Time expired)

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

Senator Bell, second supplementary?

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

Minister, Australia is at the mercy of fragile supply chains, with no fuel at more than 50 petrol stations in New South Wales today and shortages and soaring prices for essential building supplies, like PVC pipes. And that situation is getting worse. What will it take for Labor to admit that its net zero obsession has helped drive Australia into this mess? When will the government put Australia's energy security first and scrap net zero before even more damage is done to the economy and to our nation's cost of living?

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

Senator Bell, that is quite a tenuous link, but I will invite the minister to answer the question.

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

I'll give it a go. That is evidence of a disordered mind, that question.

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

Senator Ayres—

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

That is what that is.

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

Senator Ayres—

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

I withdraw.

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

Thank you.

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

Honestly! Making a connection between our energy security approach and the fact that Australia imports products from around the world—including being dependent for our petrol fleet on imported petrol, because, Senator, we don't have crude oil reserves in Australia that are economic. We used to have six petrol refineries—six fuel refineries. We now have two. We now have two, because Mr Taylor didn't get around to closing the last two. And you and your mates here have done more to damage Australian industrial capability than anybody else in Australian history. More manufacturing jobs departed Australia under this lot than at any time in Australian history, and Senator Canavan has got more to be ashamed of, in terms of manufacturing jobs— (Time expired)