Ralph Babet (Victoria, United Australia Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to take note of the answers given by Minister Wong to questions asked by me previously. Russia bad! Russia bad! We keep hearing it. Russian oil, though, is not so bad—that seems, in my opinion, to be the position of this government. Many here in this chamber—and I've heard it—like to condemn Russia. The minister boasted before that we've imposed many sanctions on Russia. Whatever. Fair enough. But this government then goes on to send aid to Ukraine, and then the government gives speeches about morality, international law et cetera. Yet—quietly, indirectly and conveniently—we buy the oil that funds the very regime that we claim that we oppose. Of course, not directly—that would be far too obvious.

Instead what we do is import the oil from India, from Turkiye and from other foreign countries that refine Russian crude. They just sell it to us with a different label. That's what they do—clean hands, I guess. But it's the same oil, the same money and the same outcome. Since 2022, we've imported roughly $24 billion worth of fuel tied to Russian crude. That's delivered billions of dollars to Moscow. Then we pat ourselves on the back for sending aid to Ukraine. We've indirectly given more tax revenue to Russia than we've provided to Ukraine in military aid. Let's stop pretending for a second. Let's just stop pretending.

We desperately need to increase our supply of oil and fuel to underpin our domestic demand. We need shiploads of fuel, and we need them urgently, so let's be honest about what this is. What is this? Either we are an Australia-first nation or we are not. Either we put our own interests first or we do not. If we are to put our interests first, we need to secure fuel that we need and we need to secure the supply chains that we rely on, of course. We do not need to apologise for it. We don't need to apologise to the activists, bureaucrats or any foreign government, because, without fuel, nothing is going to move—no trucks, no industry, no defence. You know what? We should have an Australia-first policy, which would mean putting our interests first. It would mean we have energy security, it would mean realism, it would mean strength, and it would mean we stop pretending and once again act like a sovereign nation. Let's not worry what they demand from us overseas. Let's worry about us. Let's worry about our people. Let's buy the oil from wherever it's available, and let's look after Australians. Cheers!

Question agreed to.