Leah Blyth (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today.

I think it's fair to say that there are a lot of Australians out there who are doing it tough. We heard from our leader Senator Cash today, asking questions on behalf of many of those families out there who were planning an Easter trip, an Australian tradition, and are worrying about whether they are going to have fuel for their road trips. I certainly count my family as one of those families as my three children, my husband and I consider what we're going to do over the Easter long weekend. Can we take out the caravan? Is there going to be fuel for us, for our holiday, or are we going to be stuck somewhere with no fuel?

It is very unfortunate that the Labor government haven't been able to provide any particular answers or any particular plan. All we keep being told by this government is that there is no issue with supply. When we look at quotes from them over the last few weeks, it has been said by various senior members of their cabinet that fuel supply is actually greater than it was before the conflict in the Middle East commenced. In fact, we've got some 800 petrol stations across the country that either don't have diesel or don't have petrol. What this government is telling us and what the reality is on the ground are two very, very different things. Families out there are the ones who are paying the price for that confusion and this government's inability to get the fuel. If the supply is stronger—and that's what they tell us—than it was before the conflict, then why is that fuel not at petrol stations? Why is that fuel not available for Australian people to fill up their cars or even to plan for an Easter long-weekend holiday? It does not make sense. Either there is an issue with supply and the government is not being honest with us or they're just completely incompetent and cannot get the supply where it needs to be. They're the only two explanations for that.

We've also seen today that the Prime Minister has announced a cut in the fuel excise for three months. They have adopted the coalition's call to cut the fuel excise for three months. It took them days to consider this. They came up with no solutions of their own—zero solutions. Instead, they've had plans of meetings for plans, and they've got a fuel tsar who's helping to coordinate the supply, and that's not working out well because, every day, there are more petrol stations with no fuel. So we are delighted to see that the government has followed what we asked them to do.

It is disappointing that they have come up with no plan of their own and, instead, seem to be following the advice of the opposition. We don't have the resources that the government does. But I will say that there seems to be no discussion about what will happen to the GST windfall that the states are getting from the increased fuel prices. Fuel prices are well into the high $2 range and even the $3 mark. That means that our states are going to get a significant GST windfall, and I wonder what this Labor government is going to do with its Labor mates in state governments to make sure that that money goes back into the pockets of hardworking Australians who are being squeezed right now.

Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

After that extraordinary contribution, which is seeking to set one Australian against another in the way we've just come to expect from those opposite, I want to put on the record a little bit of the Liberal legacy and the situation that they got us into. Angus Taylor, now the star leader of the Liberal-National coalition, put Australia's fuel reserves in Texas, and he watched domestic gas prices go up and up. These are not the guys you want in control right now. They were also in government when they saw four of the six petroleum refineries closed, and two of the four that went down went down while Angus Taylor was the minister for energy. Let's be clear: the answers to the challenges that Australia faces right now are not coming from Mr Angus Taylor and his team.

So what is the reality? Australians have, delightfully, lived in peace for a very, very long time. We've not seen the impacts of war hit us ever before in the life experience of so many Australians. That is the reality we face. Right now, in this piece of land that nobody ever knew about—or many Australians wouldn't have known about—until just recently, called the Strait of Hormuz, there is a pinch point. There is a war that's happening in that region, and we are not getting the fuel that we were used to getting to the whole of the global economy. Everybody who made decisions to scale up their business, to advance their economic risk for reward, are all under the pump now because they could not foresee this in their business plans. They don't need whingeing and carping, which is what we're seeing from the other side here. They need a strategic plan, and they need the confidence that that plan is going to deliver them the fuel supplies that they need to continue to do their business and get through this incredible challenge that we're all facing.

In Australia, the fact is that everybody knows that there are fuels of all types that we rely on for our economy. We need to make sure that we have correct supply, we need to ensure that we have proper distribution of that and we also need to be mindful of the supply chain impacts that are a part of that whole ecosystem. We're also very mindful of fertiliser. But it's not just fertilisers, and it's not just the farm sector that is being impacted; it is everybody in heavy industries—people driving trucks, people picking up our garbage and people who advancing the nation by providing the infrastructure. I know that people talk about the Bruce Highway. Of course, we can't let that stop. We've got to manage fuel in to allow the continuation of housing building, PVC piping, proper infrastructure development, fertiliser and fuel. We know this.

Instead of sitting back and having a big old whinge, as we see from everybody on the other side, we're getting on with the job. Today was a very, very important day because the Prime Minister has activated a critical part of what we're doing, which is the National Fuel Security Plan. There are four phases. The first bit is 'plan and prepare'. We're pretty well through that now. We are now in 'keeping Australia moving'. That is what we have to do. Further down the track, if necessary, we'll take 'targeted action'. The fourth stage is 'protecting critical services for all Australians', including access to health care. Cities; peri-urban areas, where I live, on the edge of a city; regional and rural—every Australian is in it together with this government. We are not going to set one Australian against another. Nothing good comes of breaking us apart. We're all in this together. We can do the heavy lifting, as a government, with the support of great Australians, to make sure our National Fuel Security Plan is properly enacted and that we get the supplies in that we need to keep Australia moving.

James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to refer the Senate to a quote from Senator Ayres. On Tuesday 3 March 2026 Senator Ayres said, 'We have larger reserves on hand today than there have been at any time over the last 15 years as a result of the action, not words, that this government has taken.' That was a month ago. But the reality is that that's not what's happening out there in the real world. We have a Labor government here who sort of go between the bubble of their electric vehicle Comcar and the bubble of this building, and they actually don't understand what's happening there.

This morning while I was having my morning coffee, at about six o'clock, I was planning what I was going to do on the weekend, and I looked up Bunnings. While I was searching for some things, what was really interesting was that searches for jerry cans, fuel cans and diesel cans came up automatically, because the mob out there—our people, the Australian people—don't believe the Labor government that the fuel is there, because for four years they've had a prime minister who is rarely in the same room as when truth is being told. The mob out there, the people of Australia, can see through this prime minister and see through these cabinet ministers, who have stood up here for four or five weeks now and used a form of words to say to everybody, 'Don't panic, don't panic,' when the mob out there know there is an issue with our fuel supply.

Four weeks ago I was in a little town in the Darling Downs called Allora, if you happen to know it. My parents lived there; my mum lives there now. Its fuel ran out about four weeks ago now—ran out. At the same time, Labor ministers were in this chamber saying there was no issue in Queensland. Indeed, one Labor minister said the fuel supply issue in Queensland was because of the flooding. Apart from a lack of understanding of the geographical situation in Queensland—fuel stations on the Downs were running out a month ago, and the flooding was taking place up in the north-west and in Wide Bay-Burnett—it just shows that when the government ministers come into this place they're not prepared to tell the Australian people the truth; they're not prepared to look Australians in the eye and say, 'Look, we do have an issue with fuel supply.' They're not prepared to give the advice. They're not prepared to take the appropriate action. They take action only when the opposition—Angus Taylor, Dan Tehan, Jane Hume and Matt Canavan—have called them out, for example on the halving of the fuel excise, which is something the opposition has been calling for, for a number of days now. It's only now that Prime Minister Albanese has done one of his backflips and agreed with what the opposition had been calling for.

What is also interesting is the tone of the ministers. This week they've realised that they've created a problem through their lack of leadership. In previous weeks in here we had the frontbench all cock-a-hoop and trying to rub noses in it, blaming the Right Wing media, blaming Arthur Fadden—blaming everybody for the fuel crisis. You could bottle the arrogance and sell it at a country fair.

This week their tone is different, because they know there was a problem out there and they know that the mob has seen through them, and they've being held to account for their failures to ensure that we have fuel security in this country. They have failed Australians. (Time expired)

Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As usual, we have the continuation of misinformation and disinformation which is a speciality from those opposite. We've heard a contribution in the chamber today about how the confusion that's been caused in the community was because there wasn't enough information from the government in relation to the supply and security of fuel, which is completely wrong. But I have to say that those opposite specialise, as I said, in misinformation and disinformation. They never miss an opportunity to make political points, no matter whether it's this crisis we're in now, with the increasing price of fuel, which is being caused by a war in the Middle East, or whether it's a visiting dignitary. The Liberals will never miss an opportunity to play politics. That's the reality of it.

We have been listening—and we know because we're in the community all the time—in relation to the concerns in the community about whether or not they've got access, the price of fuel that has been increasing and the impact that it's having on farmers. Of course we want to assist farmers. The reality is that, without the farmers' being able to put in and grow the crops that they need to keep the supply train moving along—but then today, when we spoke about legislation that is assisting truckies, none of them actually talked about truckies and what they do for this country.

We introduced the ACCC legislation to crack down on price gouging. They wanted that brought in urgently within the House of Reps, and what did they do? They did what they normally do and they said no. They voted against it. Talk about hypocrites! I do appreciate Senator O'Neill's contribution for reminding us all that it was Mr Angus Taylor that was the energy minister at the time when two of those refineries, of the four, closed down. It was him! Then, 'Oh, yes, where are we going to have the fuel?'—Texas of all places. I just wonder what Mr Hastie would say about that. How long is it going to be before he takes over? One might say, after Sunday's contribution on Insiders, when is he going to make his move against Mr Taylor?

Let's get the facts on the record, because they don't like the facts. It is the Prime Minister who has called now two National Cabinet meetings—today and the second one was held. What they've done in consultation with states and territories is halve the fuel excise on petrol and diesel for three months. That's what they've done in consultation, because this is impacting the entire country. So we do it in a very considered way after consulting not only the premiers and first ministers but also the industry. We are putting things in place, as I said.

Now, 29 c a litre of that cost when you go and fill up your car is going to have a big impact on families. It will save you $19. That's a very good first step, but let me just remind people that what is happening now is because of what is happening in the Middle East. We have been impacted. That's not our doing, but what we have done is take the steps that were needed to support Australians, and we will continue to do that. I've seen that in Tasmania. They've actually given free public transport to Tasmanians for three months—a very good thing to do, unusual for a Liberal government. Nevertheless, what I'd like them to do is remember the taxi industry—those taxis who are supporting people with disabilities in my home state to make sure they're not left high and dry. So I will give credit where credit is due. (Time expired)

Jessica Collins (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Here we are yet again standing before the government and seeking answers to questions on where the fuel is. We hear again that we have more supply than ever, but we know—we Australians know—that there are 870 fuel stations out there that have run out of supply. But, no—'There is more fuel supply than ever.' We are five weeks into this fuel crisis, and finally the government has admitted that they've got to do something about it. So let's just run over what the plan is that they've got—the plan for the plan that they've got—for this fuel crisis. I tell you what: you could not make this stuff up.

Four stages—they come in four stages. The first is 'plan and prepare'. The government in charge is now saying today they've got to plan and prepare for this fuel crisis. Stage No. 2—we've got to 'keep Australia moving'. Well, let's just hope that they do that by Good Friday, so that all the good Australians can go off on their holiday with their families and get the fuel that they need to take their kids away for the weekend. Stage No. 3 is 'taking targeted action' because obviously it's not clear enough to the government that there are people—farmers, truckies—out in the regions that can't get their fuel. Twenty-five per cent of Australian farmers are saying that they are either reducing or not planting this season. They already made that decision weeks ago, and here we have the government of the day saying that phase No. 3 is taking targeted action. Then No. 4 is 'protecting critical services for all Australians'.

Well, let me just walk you through the questions that we asked of this government today. Before I do that, I want to ask a question of this government—perhaps a better reflection on this. Why has it all taken today—to come up with this plan for a plan? And why can't they do it all at once? Why does it have to be staged across four different phases? It makes no sense to me. Meanwhile, the good Australian people out there are hurting. They can't get access to the fuel, and they're staring down the barrel of not being able to take their families away this Easter.

Let me just talk you through the reality of what's happening out there. We asked questions of the government about whether they could guarantee that, by Good Friday, those 870 bowsers that have run dry will be refilled. There was no guarantee—none.

We asked them about harvesting, whether our farmers would be able to get the diesel that they need during a time at which they need more diesel than at any other time during the year, whether they could get the fertiliser that they need—for which, by the way, prices have doubled over the past few weeks. No answer—but, remember, there's no need to panic. That's what the government says—'Don't panic; we'll get through this with our plan for a plan.'

We asked about the jet fuel prices, which have increased by 70 per cent over the past few weeks—no answer. We asked about health care. By the way, the Rural Doctors Association are saying that everyday Australians are having to make life-or-death decisions because they can't get access to fuel. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.