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

Labor is now holding its second national crisis meeting to deal with the fuel crisis it denied existed for weeks. Yet once again Labor is showing it's too weak, too slow and too out of touch to do what is needed to ease the pain Australian families are feeling. One Nation has been leading on this issue, because we understand what is at stake for everyday Australians, for our farmers, for our transport workers and for the families who are already struggling to make ends meet. The federal government, the Albanese Labor government, already has the power under the Liquid Fuel Emergency Act to step in, as One Nation has called for, and direct supply, prioritise essential users and make sure this crisis does not spiral further out of control.

Minister Chris Bowen should act now. Waiting until businesses are shut, supermarket prices rise even further and supply chains disintegrate is negligence. Regional Australians will be hit first and hardest. Farmers need diesel to harvest, freight operators need fuel to keep goods moving, and small businesses cannot survive if the cost keeps exploding. When rural industries suffer, every Australian pays more at the check-out, every family pays more for dinner and everyone feels more pain. Labor is talking tough by moving to increase penalties for misconduct and cartel behaviour from $50 million to $100 million, which is great, but bigger penalties alone will not fix an immediate supply crisis, because these large fuel corporations can treat these fines as just the cost of doing business while Australians are left to pay the real cost.

What we need is real action. The government must use the powers it already has to secure fuel for essential industries, protect regional Australia and stop this crisis from getting worse. One Nation has put forward the solution. We have the Liquid Fuel Emergency Act. If this is not an emergency, it is hard to imagine what an emergency actually looks like. For farmers, this is an emergency. For people who cannot get the fuel they need to get to work, this is an emergency. For our hospitals who need to run diesel generators if the power goes out, this is an emergency. So please act like it's an emergency.