Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Four weeks ago, Trump and Netanyahu launched a war of aggression against Iran, triggering a global crisis that may take years to recover from. Instead of denouncing this act of madness, Labor jumped on board. Not only was Anthony Albanese the first world leader to endorse this insanity but he's since drawn Australia into the conflict, risking Australian lives in a war started by a delusional tyrant at the behest of a genocidal psychopath.

Everyone will suffer from this, but some are going to suffer more than others. For people in regional, rural and remote Australia, the energy crisis is already hitting hard, with fuel prices soaring and shortages of diesel and petrol reported all over the country, including in my state of Queensland. When goods transport networks fail, it will be people outside urban centres who will bear the brunt of those shortages. When food and medicine prices spike, regional, rural and remote people—already overrepresented among Australia's poorest and most disadvantaged—will be the ones who cop it the hardest.

People are worried and they're angry. But Labor—despite its enthusiastic support for the war that has directly produced this historic crisis—doesn't have answers for them. The Greens are calling for public transport to be made free nationwide to provide immediate relief for millions and to free up fuel supply for rural, regional and remote communities. We've also called on the government to pause mutual obligations and raise income support payments, just like the Morrison government did during the pandemic. We need a 25 per cent tax on gas exports to claw back wartime profits and we need to withdraw support for the war. We need to bring our troops home and demand an immediate end to the conflict.