Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move a motion relating to the need for the Albanese Labor government to provide urgent relief to Australians facing surging fuel prices, as circulated.

Leave not granted.

Pursuant to contingent notice standing in my name, I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent me moving a motion to provide for the consideration of a matter, namely a motion to give precedence to a motion relating to the need for the Albanese Labor government to provide urgent relief to Australians facing surging fuel prices.

Quite frankly, I don't know how much more urgent it can actually get before the Albanese government sits up, takes notice, admits to the Australian people that we are in the middle of a fuel crisis of their own making and, more than that, acknowledges what Australians are now experiencing on a daily basis. They are pulling up at the bowser, and guess what? If they can get fuel, they are now paying exorbitant prices in excess of $3 a litre. Many are pulling up at the bowser, only to find that the servo has actually run out of fuel. You've got small businesses saying, 'We can't open our doors because of the fuel cost.' You've also got the restaurant industry now saying to its own restaurants, 'You need to impose a five per cent levy on your customers so that you can keep your doors open.' You've got the Easter break coming up, and what do we have? Caravan park after caravan park after holiday park saying, 'We have had cancellation after cancellation.' Guess what? Once you lose those bookings, you do not get them back.

What does the Albanese government do? It continues to say: 'We're having a meeting. We know that Australians are feeling pain, yes, but I have to say,' to quote Senator Ayres, 'it's nothing more than right-wing extremist scaremongering.' Say that to the Australian who is literally now having to make the decision and say: 'Do I go to work today? No, I can't. Not because I don't want to, but because I can't afford the fuel.' Say that to the small business who has to say: 'You know we're going to lay off staff today. Do you know why? Because my overheads have now increased.' What about what the waste management industry across Australia said? They made it very, very clear to the Albanese government: 'Guess what! We're actually important. If the bins don't get emptied, do you know what happens within 48 hours across the aged-care industry and our healthcare industry? Disease runs rampant.' They actually said, 'This is potentially catastrophic.' Do you know what we called on the Albanese government to do last week on behalf of the waste management industry? We asked for them to be placed immediately on the fuel priority list. Guess what? Crickets, yet again. But the good news is that the Albanese government is having a meeting!

This is a suspension motion. There is a reason that we have moved this motion this morning. It's because this motion should take precedence over all other government business. Why? Because we are in the middle of a fuel crisis. For five weeks now, the Albanese government has had its head in the sand. They have failed to recognise what Australians see when they go to that bowser. Australians look at the price and wonder, 'Can I even afford to fill up, given that the next place I'm going to is the shop and my groceries are now more expensive?' I don't think that the Albanese government understands. The crisis itself is now threatening fuel security, and do you know what happens when fuel security in Australia is threatened? The consequences spread quickly.

This is a government that hasn't just been on the back foot since day one; it has actively had its head in the sand. It's not just the motorists who feel it. It's not just the freight operators. It's the essential services. Rubbish collection is actually important. In particular, you have the health industry and the aged-care industry saying: 'If our rubbish is not collected, this is catastrophic. It takes about 48 hours for germs, disease et cetera to spread through our industry.' That affects people's health. What about the NDIS operators at the moment? They are saying: 'I don't have the money to fuel my car. Do you know what happens if I don't have the money to fuel my car? I cannot go to work.' And do you know what not going to work means? It means that the NDIS recipient, the patient, is not getting the level of care that they need.

We have said to the Prime Minister, 'We will work with you as the opposition.' Bring in the legislation today. In fact, you can do it as soon as we suspend the standing orders. You can axe the fuel tax and give motorists, mum-and-dad Australia but also businesses the relief they need now at the bowser. But more than that, you keep on telling us, 'The supply is in Australia.' Get the fuel moving to where it needs to be. Axe the tax. Move the fuel.

Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government won't be supporting the suspension of standing orders, and I acknowledge the wide-ranging contribution on the topic more broadly.

I completely reject the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate's assertion around the government and the government's response. We have been continuously responding to the situation as it unfolds as a consequence of a conflict in the Middle East and the impact that that's having both here on fuel prices at home and in putting pressure on industries, including farmers and small business. The government has responded and will continue to respond. The criticism of the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate around a meeting of National Cabinet—it is appropriate that the National Cabinet meet today. It is an important meeting, bringing together the states and territories and the Prime Minister to discuss fuel supply and distribution, as it impacts every community around Australia.

Since the conflict has started, the government has convened National Cabinet today but also previously. We've passed new laws to double penalties for petrol companies for false or misleading conduct and cartel behaviour. We've begun the release of 20 per cent of Australia's fuel reserves. We've changed petrol standards to get more fuel flowing. We've changed diesel standards so Australia's refineries can supply more diesel. We've appointed a national Fuel Supply Taskforce Coordinator. We've tasked the ACCC with ramping up fuel price monitoring and issuing on-the-spot fines. We've made it easier for Australia's refineries to access government funding when they run at a loss.

We've engaged with international partners to keep supply flowing. We've engaged with the states and territories on supply and distribution, including holding a special energy ministers meeting; activated the National Coordination Mechanism, which has met twice; and unlocked funding for financial counselling for impacted farmers. We also, as senators would know, will introduce new legislation today to give the government new trading powers to ensure the continued supply of fuel in Australia. And there is legislation on the program today—which we should be at now, had it not been for this suspension—on the Fair Work Amendment (Fairer Fuel) Bill 2026. In addition to that, and in consultation with the opposition, there is a bill on increasing the advance to the finance minister.

In short, we have done all of that, responding to the unfolding situation. We understand how hard this is on motorists, on business and on various industries that are directly affected by the outcomes of the conflict in the Middle East, and this government will continue to respond. This is an orderly government that works through what the right response is. We take advice and we make decisions, and we will continue to do that. The list of decisions and outcomes that I just took the Senate through clearly indicate how much work has been done. But that work continues as the situation unfolds, in similar circumstances to what those opposite did when they were in government when the pandemic hit. It was a matter of taking decisions that responded to the circumstances at the time. Those decisions were not all done in a finite period of time.

We have taken a number of decisions to shore up supply and make sure that supply is getting to Australia. That is critical. That is the priority of the government, and it will continue to be. How that gets distributed to make sure it's getting to those places where we've seen disruption in the last few weeks is also a priority. And we understand cost is an issue. I mean, anyone who fills their car up is feeling this, and the government understands that. We need to work with the states and territories on their response to this. The Commonwealth stands ready to work with them. This is having a serious economic impact on individual households and on businesses, and this government stands with them to make sure we are doing everything we can.

Ministers are working in their portfolios to make sure they are responding appropriately—meeting with stakeholders, which they are doing constantly, including over the weekend and at night. This is an unfolding situation—

Well, you can scoff. We are working hard to ensure that our response is appropriate and fits the circumstances of the time. (Time expired)

Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure, as the shadow transport minister and also as the Leader of the Nationals in the Senate, to support Senator Cash's call that this chamber be suspended and that the government give fuel relief to Australians right now. We do not need to have legislation. The minister, with the stroke of a pen, could cut the fuel excise right now and make changes to the road user charge so that our trucking industry could get the relief they are desperately seeking. Whilst the government stands up and talks a big empathetic game—the language: so empathetic; you'd think butter wouldn't melt in their mouth—we are heading into the fifth week of this crisis. And only now are we seeing a plan for a meeting today to come up with a plan on how to actually help our nation get through this crisis.

We are at the end of the global supply chain, so at the start of crises you do not feel the impact. But, as the war drags on, it is our communities that are impacted. We are the most heavily reliant country in the world when it comes to diesel. It's not just our agricultural industry, as Senator McDonald knows; it is our miners—the industries that pay the bills, that pay for Medicare, that pay for politicians, that pay for our roads. Mining and agriculture rely on diesel supplies. And this government is wringing its hands. In the first week of the crisis, what did they do? They blamed Australians: 'Stop getting concerned. We've got it under control'—we've got no plan but we've got it under control. In the second week of the crisis: 'It's the states. What are the states doing?'

Every single day, this government has the powers available to it to make sure the limited supply of fuel that we have gets to where it's needed. Yet Minister Bowen is afraid to use the powers this parliament has given him. We see them, time and time again, coming in here, wringing hands, attacking everyone else and refusing to take responsibility for the great privilege of being the government of this great country, which also comes with great responsibility—and you'd better use it when the crisis comes. You're not always going to get it right, but the very worst thing you can do is do nothing. You have to admit that your own policies have meant we're weaker going into this crisis. Businesses have been going offshore. Meanwhile, you've nailed them on industrial relations and you've nailed them on environmental approvals, so—

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Energy.

Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Energy policy—you've kept clinging to net zero like a life raft for your EU trade agreement. Well, how is that going to help us when we have no sovereignty over our own fuel? We need to be looking at the business going offshore and why we haven't been getting new oil and gas projects up and running and ensuring that our country is better prepared.

You heard the minister then talk about the ACCC powers: 'They can hand out higher bills.' The government did not change the ACCC's powers to actually make sure they can examine and investigate price gouging by big international oil companies, who are holding regional Australia and our agricultural industry, particularly, to ransom during this crisis. And, yes, we need families to have relief at the bowser right now, and that's something that should have already happened. And our trucking industry is desperate. This is what they've actually asked for. What are you giving them? You're allowing the TWU into the contractual arrangements for the trucking industry, but that's okay.

My inbox, like everyone's here, has been absolutely flooded with local businesses seeking relief. We've got a transport operator, a third-generation transport business—the viability of their business is threatened with the rapid increase of fuel prices and an immediate cash flow crisis. That's why the transport industry has also been asking the government about GST relief and about actually giving them what we gave them during COVID: six months of relief from lending arrangements with banking and other creditors.

It's a cash flow crisis. Truckies are parking their trucks and not filling them up, because they can't afford to. Declaring this the emergency that it is, instigating disaster-relief packages for our industries—that's exactly what the industry has been calling for. And, once again, this government has done nothing.

Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

():

The hypocrisy in this place reeks—the hypocrisy from that side of politics, that side of the chamber, which has backed this bloody war, this illegal war of Donald Trump's, since day one and is now saying it's actually causing pain to Australians. Well, of course it is! That's what was always going to happen, but you went in blindly, you backed America, you backed your mate Trump, and now Australians are paying the price. Of course, the Labor Party did exactly the same thing. Both sides here, the major-party cartel, backed Donald Trump, and now the pain is really being felt. It doesn't sound like such a good idea now, does it? But, of course, the major cheer squad of Mr Donald Trump is One Nation, and I assume we're about to hear the Leader of One Nation, Pauline Hanson, stand up and wring her hands and give her crocodile tears, meanwhile backing the major supporter of this rubbish, of this pain, of this suffering, of this economic crisis—and that is Donald Trump. There's no bigger cheerleader for Donald Trump in this country than Pauline Hanson and One Nation.

Meanwhile, Australians are copping it really hard, and it's going to get worse, because Donald Trump's war is in no way looking like it's going to end. The government has no plan and the opposition has no plan. They just want to complain. While they're complaining, they want to make it harder for people to actually do the things that are cheaper—get into electric vehicles. The opposition doesn't want anyone buying or driving EVs. The culture war is in overdrive. The hypocrisy is rank.

But let's just take one moment to reflect on what really is happening. There are cracks emerging in the major party cartel. We have Mr Hastie, who's the only person from the coalition who's starting to question whether this war was a good idea at all. He doesn't really like Donald Trump, so he says. So what is it that the opposition actually stands for? On one hand, they're in there, backing the war, backing Donald Trump and backing the pain that Australians are feeling. They're not doing anything about it, just whingeing and whining, while privately clapping their mate Donald Trump back home in America, yet they now have some cracks emerging, because there are some people who are saying that this war should never have been started, this war should never have been backed by Australia and Donald Trump is leading the whole world down a path of ruin.

The question I have to the coalition is: what's your policy? Do you back the war or don't you? For four weeks, you've backed this war that has pushed prices up and is making life hard now for Australians. It's about time you were honest with the Australian people about this. Of course, the only reason we're starting to see cracks emerging within the major party cartel and comments from people like Mr Hastie from the other place is because Australians are saying: 'We don't want anything to do with this war. It's not our war. We don't want anything to do with it. We shouldn't be chasing the US. We shouldn't have our troops over there. We shouldn't be sending our warplanes and we certainly shouldn't be paying the price.' Australians don't want this war. They don't support Donald Trump. And now the major parties have got themselves wedged into some pretty difficult corners.

So what do we do about it? Well, today National Cabinet meets. If the Prime Minister can't deliver free public transport across the country, the meeting's a failure in my opinion. If the government can't deliver proper support for people right now, then it's going to be a failure. We need to be making sure that people can get to work and get to school, and that we free up fuel for the regions. That's what needs to happen, and the Prime Minister needs to at least lead on that.

And, of course, we should be putting a tax on the big gas corporations, who are making massive profits out of this bloody war, pushing up Australians' energy prices. Australians are going to be paying more for power and more for gas because the gas cartel, the big gas companies, are banking big profits while this war continues to erupt. We need to tax them. This week, here in this chamber, we have the power to do it if there's the will.

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

Actually I do support this motion because we need to bring to bear what is happening to the Australian public with this. What a load of dribble has just come out of the Greens' mouth explaining that we're all for war.

Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's your mate, Trump, Pauline!

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

The fact is that no-one in this chamber has said, 'We're going to go to war. We wanted to go to war'—never have done.

Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You've backed it since day one. He's your mate.

Slade Brockman (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Hanson, resume your seat. Senator Hanson-Young, please.

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

We've been hit with this situation now. I, and no other member of this chamber, want to see any Australian troops on foreign soil, fighting. We've seen enough of wars. But we've been dealt the situation and now we have to deal with it. The biggest problem coming out of this, I see, is how exposed we are and that we cannot provide for ourselves in this nation. This has all come about due to climate change, have no doubt about it. The legislation and laws that have been put into this place—led by the Greens, led by the Labor Party and started under the coalition many years ago—is why we're in this situation.

You're worrying now about what's happening over there. Do you know what? I stand by the Iranian people that have been given their freedom from 47 years under a regime. And you come in here—and you think the Greens are saying they want to fight and stand up for women? What about the women there who are controlled and imprisoned, flogged—

Slade Brockman (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Hanson, please resume your seat. Senator Hanson-Young, on a point of order?

Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A point of order. I'd like Senator Hanson to explain why she wanted all of those Iranian women locked up in immigration detention for years. For years that's all she stood for. She just wants them locked up—

Slade Brockman (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Hanson-Young, resume your seat!

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We're not on broadcast.

Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I don't care about broadcast.

Slade Brockman (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Hanson-Young, please cease interjecting.

Senator Hanson-Young, that is clearly a debating point. You know that.

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

Thank you. I sat and listened to Senator Hanson-Young's speech and her criticisms without interjecting. Now, I'm pointing out the facts here.

I ran into and was contacted by the Iranian people, by some of their—I won't say departments. They said, 'Thank you for standing up for us.' We don't want this war, but people are under dictatorship, and, if we leave it up to the Greens, we'll be under Marxism. That's what it is. That's what would come into this country. I can assure the people in the gallery that I don't want to see war. I don't want to see our people over there fighting. But we've been dealt this hand and we have to deal with it the best we can.

The situation is this. Over the weekend, I went out to the farming sector, and they are really on their knees. They are providing the food to the rest of the country, and they're saying: 'Pauline, we can't get the fuel. It's so expensive for us.' Not only that—guess what? They can't even get the fertiliser. If we don't have the fuel, we don't have the fertiliser. They don't know whether they're going to put a crop in, whether they'll actually be able to harvest that crop. They don't know the cost to them that's going to be involved. If the farming sector goes down, the whole community goes down—money to that area. This is the situation we're in now.

All these safeguarding mechanisms, environmental protection agencies—we have the fuel; we have the resources in this nation. It has been shut down by this Labor Party, backed totally by the Greens all the time to shut it down. We don't have the resources. We've lost our industries and manufacturing. The government has given $1 billion to Snowy Hydro to pay for the electricity for Tomago to keep them operating. You're backing this all the time. Projects that you've brought in destroyed our industries and manufacturing. Because of your electricity, 47,000 small businesses have gone under.

And I'll tell the people now: you might think that this war that's happening now over in the Middle East with Iran—be prepared for what's going to happen, because China have said they are going to invade Taiwan. They want Taiwan next year. If you think this is the start of it, it's not. It's going to get worse than that, because a lot of our imports come from China. If you're talking about fuel and energy now—start going after our own fuel here in this nation. Be self-sufficient. Start up the industries and manufacturing. If China invades Taiwan, we're going to be in one hell of a mess. We import $300 billion worth of product from there. That is going to be worse. We will be on our knees.

I've been speaking against globalisation since 1996. We don't have vision for this country. You're shutting it down, and that's why the people are living in poverty in this nation. It is absolutely disgusting—what you have done.

And you're to blame for it; the Greens are to blame for it. You have not done what is in the best interests of this nation. (Time expired)

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

():  Well, the last 15 minutes have demonstrated why the Senate should not entertain this suspension. It has demonstrated the polarisation and the hyperpartisanship of the Liberals and Nationals and One Nation and, indeed, the Greens political party. That's what it demonstrates. And it falls to the Labor Party, as the government of Australia, to—in a careful and sensible and effective way, in an orderly way—set out the policy response to this emerging crisis in the Middle East. What this debate demonstrates is that there are no answers down there, there's less than no answers there and there are no answers from the Liberals and Nationals to this set of issues.

Of course military conflict in the Middle East, the decision of the government of Iran to effectively close the Strait of Hormuz, has impacts on Australian fuel, Australian fertiliser and a series of intermediate goods, including plastics. That is the case. The government has been carefully managing these questions but, of course, it has a series of impacts that will be felt today and over the course of the year in terms of the broader economy. That is the case.

What have we seen from the Liberals and Nationals? Well, we have seen hyperventilating and hyperpartisanship when what we should have seen is the approach of an alternative party of government. They wonder why they keep getting smaller—wringing their hands internally in each of their state branches, worrying their way through these issues when what they should do is act. What they should do, if they want to be a serious party of government, is not do student politics resolutions in here. They should act and move back towards the centre of Australian politics and engage with the real issues for Australians. They have not been able to bring themselves to do that because of their own internal sense of grievance, their own incapacity to deal with the marginal position that they are currently in in Australian politics. And they have not been able to do it because they are utterly disconnected from where ordinary people are in Australia, in the centre of Australian politics.

That's the problem for them—the tactical position that they adopt. I could at least respect a tactical position that had a hope of—even though it was partisan, even if it was not in the national interest. I could at least, as a base political character myself, understand why you would adopt a hyperpartisan position that was not in the national interest. I wouldn't like it. I wouldn't do it myself, but I could understand it. But the—

Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Duniam, is this a point of order?

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm seeking a bit of guidance here. The debate that we're currently in at the moment started at 10.01. I understand there are 30 minutes allocated for debate. It's now 10.31. I wondered how much longer—as eloquent and on point as this is—

Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One moment, please. Senator Duniam, I'm advised that the debate started at 10.02. As you know, I wasn't in the chair at that time. There have been a number of points of order taken; that is reflecting where the clock is at the moment. I can assure you that it looks like there's only one minute and 35 seconds to go. So—

Honourable senators interjecting—

Senators! I've just joined the chair. I don't know what the temperature was like before, but I remind you to keep to order.

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

Well, it was very disruptive until I started making a contribution—

Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Ayres, get to the debate.

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

I could at least understand a partisan position that offered some hope of partisan advantage, but what these characters are doing every day of the week is not in the interests of Australians. It should be a position in the national interest. It never is. And every day they advance it. Someone gets smaller, and someone gets bigger. They ought to bring themselves to understand that. But they can't understand it, because their sense of internal grievance, their extremism and their hyperpartisanship don't allow them to see the national interest.

The response of the government will be done in the way it has been done in the Australian interest the Australian way. We will be orderly. We will be effective. We will be systematic. We will continue to advance measures working with industry that mean that we offer real, practical assistance to Australian households, to Australian farmers, to Australian business and to Australian industry because we know what this set of challenges means for our national economic interest and our national industrial interest. What those opposite and One Nation and the Greens have demonstrated over the last 20 minutes is that they don't have a hope of understanding those questions.

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

The question is that the motion to suspend standing orders, moved by Senator Cash, be agreed to.