Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

Today the Albanese Labor Government is introducing the Treasury Laws Amendment (Fuel Excise Relief) Bill 2026.

This Bill will deliver temporary and targeted support to Australian motorists and truckies in a responsible way.

The war in the Middle East is battering the global economy.

Supply chains have been disrupted, equity markets have been volatile, and inflation is creeping up across the globe.

Oil prices today are around twice what they were at the start of 2026 as a result of the conflict.

All of this is flowing through to prices at the bowser, and Australians have been left picking up the tab.

That is why we are taking steps to help shield them from some of the impacts of the war.

As we announced yesterday, this Bill will temporarily halve the fuel excise for petrol and diesel and facilitate changes to the heavy vehicle road user charge to allow for it to be reduced to zero temporarily.

Halving the fuel excise will cut 26.3c a litre off the cost of petrol and diesel.

Including the reduction in the GST component, this will cut the cost of a 65-litre tank of fuel by nearly $19.

Reducing the Heavy Road User Charge to zero will save truckies around $130 on a 400-litre tank of fuel.

This decision has been welcomed by the trucking industry, with the Australian Trucking Association saying it "is the lifeline that small trucking businesses need."

This temporary support will come into effect from tomorrow—although it may take a week or two to flow through to retail prices—and will end on June 30.

Australians understand that this is a short-term measure to deal with immediate challenges.

The scheduled 6 per cent increase in the Road User Charge will also be deferred, and we have called on relevant states to reflect this delay in their registration fees.

By calibrating these measures in a temporary way, we will provide relief while also taking pressure of the entire economy.

Treasury estimates these steps may reduce headline inflation by 0.5 of a percentage point through the year to the June Quarter.

And while it will incur a cost to the Budget, the overwhelming majority of Australians will agree that it is money well spent.

This Bill will also grant the Minister for Transport powers to vary the Heavy Vehicle Road User Charge for the next two years, where necessary.

This will ensure the Minister has more flexibility to make temporary changes, allowing the heavy vehicle road user charge to be reduced to zero for three months from 1 April 2026 to help truckies and the transport industry.

Following discussions at National Cabinet yesterday, the States and Territories have also indicated they are willing to give back some of the extra GST revenue that will flow from higher fuel prices.

There are some complexities around how to put that undertaking into effect.

While discussions with the States and Territories are ongoing, the Bill also provides additional flexibility to make further adjustments to the rate of excise if needed to give effect to the undertaking from the States on GST.

The steps we are taking in this Bill today are in addition to all of the actions we have already taken to date, including:

My message to Australians is clear.

We hear you and we are working to make your life a bit easier right now.

The global situation is changing rapidly, but Australians can be assured their government's focus is on easing cost of living pressures, securing our fuel supply, and getting it where it's needed most.

I commend this Bill to the House.

Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

():  I rise to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Fuel Excise Relief) Bill 2026, a bill that comes before the Senate only because Australians have been pushed to the brink of a fuel crisis and the government has acted too late. The opposition supports this legislation because fuel prices sit at the centre of the cost-of-living pressure. In these circumstances, temporary relief through fuel excise is necessary, and that is why the opposition will not stand in the way of a measure that provides direct, immediate assistance to Australians who are already doing it tough.

Let us also be clear about how we arrived at this point. It was the coalition that led on this policy. Last week, the opposition publicly proposed temporarily halving the fuel excise and cutting the heavy vehicle road user charge. The Leader of the Opposition formally wrote to the Prime Minister, outlining these measures, recognising the urgency of this situation and the pressure facing households and transport operators across the country. The government's initial response on Friday was not to act but to dismiss. The Prime Minister said he would not rush into fuel tax cuts. The Treasurer and the Minister for Climate Change and Energy echoed that position, insisting the focus should be on supply chains rather than excise relief despite price volatility and distribution pressures. This government says that ships are arriving. If so, why are service stations running dry? Why were Australians being told that there was no problem while businesses on the ground were already feeling the impact of fuel shortages and rising prices?

Yet, after a National Cabinet meeting with the states and territories on Monday, the government reversed course. Suddenly, the pressure was too great to ignore, and the Albanese Labor government agreed to temporarily halve the fuel excise and cut the heavy vehicle road user charge to zero for three months. This happened because of the mounting pressure from households and businesses; the consequences of doing nothing had become too obvious. It happened because the coalition applied pressure, showed leadership and forced the government to act.

However, while the government has now adopted the coalition's policy, it has failed to adopt the coalition's fiscal discipline. When the coalition proposed this relief, we identified offsets to pay for it. We think that that is important. That is responsible budget management. This government offered no such plan at the time of adopting our policy and still has offered no plan to offset this expenditure. When asked how it would be funded, the Treasurer offered no offsets at all, instead saying that the cost would be absorbed. Well, if that is the government's idea of responsible economic management, then the bar has been set alarmingly low.

The confusion didn't stop there. Fuel excise interacts directly with GST, yet, when the government announced the cut, it hadn't settled the GST consequences with the states. Within 24 hours, we saw conflicting statements about who would bear the cost, what agreements were required and whether the arrangements were even resolved. Australians were left watching a government announce a major tax change first and work out the details later. This is unfortunately becoming a pattern from this government. One day they are saying there is not a fuel supply problem in; the next we are told that we are in a national fuel crisis. One day the government dismisses excise relief, then the next day, or a few days later in this case, it adopts it without a funding plan and without clarity for the states. This lack of consistency and coordination undermines confidence, and Australians cannot afford that in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, let alone in the middle of the fuel crisis that we are currently experiencing.

The opposition supports this bill because Australians need relief now. We have been very clear and consistent and responsible in articulating that position, but, because of that, we feel the need to make the facts abundantly clear through a second reading amendment to this bill that we are debating this evening, which I will move. This amendment makes clear that this policy originated with the coalition, that the government delayed in acting, that it failed to provide offset and that uncertainty remains around GST arrangements and fuel security. This amendment is about transparency and accountability. It's about ensuring that the record reflects what actually occurred.

Australians deserve leadership now that anticipates problems, not a government that stumbles into action once the damage is already done. While we support the bill, we do so critically and with an amendment that sets the record straight on the delay, the fiscal failure and the lack of serious planning behind this measure.

I move:

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate notes that:

(a) the reduction in fuel excise and corresponding reduction in heavy vehicle road user charge reflects a policy first proposed by the Opposition;

(b) the Government initially denied there was a fuel supply problem in Australia and by delaying taking action to ensure distribution of fuel to where it was needed, exacerbated price pressures and supply shortages;

(c) the Government delayed acting on cost-of-living relief despite mounting pressure on Australian households, small businesses and transporters;

(d) the Government has failed to provide any budget offsets or outline how this measure will be funded, increasing the risk of additional inflationary pressure—where the only fuel guaranteed is for inflation, not for farmers or families;

(e) within 24 hours of the announcement, the Government's proposed GST arrangements have already fallen into disarray, raising further concerns about fiscal credibility and coordination;

(f) uncertainty remains regarding fuel supply security and the risk of heavy-handed market interventions; and

(g) Australians deserve timely leadership and responsible economic management during this national fuel crisis".

Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Chandler, your time has expired. We'll go to Senator O'Neill.

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

It's hard to fathom the invective and negativity that are embedded in the contributions in the chamber today by those opposite. Given the real pain people are experiencing when they approach their local to fill up with fuel in the way they normally do and that they are managing their finances to figure out how they can either keep the business going or keep their car on the road—families will be thinking about kids' commitments to sport and rep sports. All of these things are pressing on the minds of Australians. The last thing they need is the carping and negativity that have characterised so much of this debate in this place.

I want to put on the record what actually happened yesterday. Instead of the one-state-against-the-other border ignoring that went on so that people in Albury and Wodonga were fighting across borders, the Australian Labor government has carefully calibrated a response and invited in, at the earliest possible point, all of the leaders from all the states around the country to make sure that we have a well calibrated and well coordinated response. The reality is it was just yesterday when the First Ministers acknowledged that the conflict in the Middle East is a vital part of the ecosystem that is seeing this heightened volatility in global energy markets and the flow-on impacts for our domestic supply chains and prices.

The parliament has just passed a piece of legislation that is going to allow cargos of fuel, in this unbelievably volatile environment, to be able to be underwritten by the government, so we make sure that the supplies that are out there are not disappeared from the market in the way that is against Australian interests. This is a government that's serious—not whingeing and carping, but determined to take the necessary, sensible action to ensure fuel supply. In addition to ensuring that fuel supply and supporting our businesses to continue to do what they do and bring in the fuel that we need in this country, the Prime Minister, in his discussions yesterday with the states, showed great leadership about what needs to happen to assist Australians who are very challenged by this sudden, unpredicted rise in the cost of fuel.

It's not just householders, it's not just farmers and it's not just families or small businesses that are feeling this. It's the providers of the heavy machinery that builds this nation, that's putting all the essential infrastructure in for the housing development that we want and that's building the roads that we need for the productivity gains that this country deserves. The government has got to have a mind to all of those things, and we need to keep afloat the businesses that are building our nation. So it's a very important decision from this government to halve the fuel excise, reducing the cost of fuel by 26.3c per litre. If you've got an average sized car and you put about 65 litres in a tank, that will save $19. And that saving of $19, every time you fill up between 1 April and 30 June, will make a difference to families. It'll also make a difference to businesses.

In addition to that, Australians know, because of our experience with COVID, that keeping our trucks on the road is actually a vital part of making sure our country continues to function until this real challenge of international disorder passes. The heavy vehicle road user charge has been reduced to zero for a period of three months. This is critical to help truckies continue their vital work for our nation.

One of many items of action that the government has undertaken is to provide a plan for what might happen as we move forward—a careful four-stage calibrated plan. Right now, we're making sure the fuel keeps coming in and, with a reduction in the fuel excise, we're making sure Australians aren't hurt at the bowser.

Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We should not be this dependent on foreign fossil fuels. And we are in this situation after our prime minister was the first world leader to back in this illegal strike, which has now sent the economy into chaos. And it's a bit baffling to hear various members of the government describe the fuel price shocks as 'unexpected' or 'unforeseen'. Welcome to the realisation! Maybe you should have thought about that before you backed in this war straight out of the blocks.

The other thing that this government should be doing is getting on the phone to President Trump and saying: 'End this nonsense now. We will not back you any further.' And then they should bring our troops home, bring our personnel home and bring our military equipment home. However, what we're dealing with is a rushed proposal to give some much-needed—albeit short-term—cost-of-living relief to people for the fuel price shocks that they are experiencing. The Greens won't stand in the way of cost-of-living relief. We were in a cost-of-living crisis before this illegal war sent fuel prices sky high. That relief is needed all the more now, so we will be supporting this.

But what were you doing for the last four years, and why did you not learn the lessons out of Ukraine? Where is our energy independence—where is our renewable energy independence? We have some of the best renewable resources in the world. You want fuel security? And you want the sun and wind—they don't go through the Strait of Hormuz. That is how we have reliable, affordable energy supplies. And it doesn't matter what brain fart Donald Trump has, and what fresh illegal war he wants to drag Australia into, next week or in a few months. If we have those alternative sustainable liquid fuels and that renewable energy independence, then we can have lower prices and tackle the climate crisis. There are no losers out of that except the greedy gas corporations who are making bank off this war.

We've proposed a 25 per cent tax, at a minimum, on those gas exports to fund actual cost-of-living relief, including things like making public transport free in what is a deep fuel crisis. I was very disappointed to see that National Cabinet, on Monday, didn't address making public transport free right across the country. I give credit to Victoria and Tasmania for doing it off their own bat.

The Prime Minister should have said: 'We got you into this mess. We backed in this war. We will fund making public transport free for all you states and territories so people can keep their costs down and we can send fuel to the regions where it's needed.' But he did not do that. Halving the fuel excise is going to give people some short-term relief, but I'm very worried that it's going to put further pressure on supply, and I think it's going to be eaten up within another week or two of price rises. What we actually need is that investment in long-term energy security, and the cheapest, most reliable and most sustainable sources of fuel are our renewable energy deposits and sustainable liquid alternative fuels.

The other thing that the government has unfortunately neglected to deal with is the fact that they're not obliged to pass this fuel price reduction on to motorists. There is no rule that says that the petrol stations can't keep this and can't price gouge off consumers like they started to do the moment the war began. There is no rule to stop them doing that, because this parliament voted against the Greens amendment to give them that power to stop price gouging—twice, in fact, in the last month. It's all well and good to give the ACCC more powers to stop petrol stations from lying to people, but how about actually stopping them from price gouging people in the first place?

Again, we will be supporting this as a short-term cost-of-living relief measure, but this is a bandaid, and this is a situation that the government should have foreseen. They should get our troops out of that conflict. We should be a force for peace in the world. We should not just sign up to be Donald Trump's lapdog. We should invest in actual renewable energy independence and our fuel security and independence by investing in our renewables. Electrification is the way to go. We can do that for our trucks. We can do that for our passenger vehicles. We can actually have affordable, cheap, clean energy and protect ourselves from future price shocks.

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

I rise to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Fuel Excise Relief) Bill 2026. Last Friday, I joined the Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the National Party to call on the government to provide fuel excise relief for Australian businesses, families and truckies, who have been slugged at the bowsers by skyrocketing fuel prices for almost five weeks. We presented the government with an economically responsible proposal to temporarily halve the fuel excise for three months and provide a corresponding reduction in the heavy vehicle road user charge that's paid by our truckies and our bus drivers. This was to ensure that there weren't inflationary pressures from giving that relief at the bowsers. We actually proposed savings measures to ensure that expenditure was going to be offset.

The government spent the weekend trying to hide from this policy suggestion, only to capitulate yesterday and announce the opposition's policy as its own. In those three days that they ran away and hid from the announcement that we made of our desire to work in a bipartisan way with the government during this crisis, the Labor government was able to pocket $50 million in fuel excise revenue from Australian drivers and truckies. But, in the announcement of the cut to fuel excise, has the government offered up any savings? Has the government sought to offset this $2.5 billion slug to the federal budget with commensurate savings so that it doesn't put inflationary pressure on an economy that's already stressed? No.

As the Australian said today:

Here we go again … Labor spends its way out of Iran War fuel crisis.

With the Prime Minister's addiction to spending taxpayers' funds, they've turned what would have been an inflation-reducing measure into another reason to dip further into debt and fuel the government's homegrown inflation crisis.

The government is seeking to rush this bill through parliament in a single day, again without adequate security. Buried in the small print of this bill, the Treasurer has a blank cheque to make further changes to the fuel excise rate over the next three months without coming back to parliament. This underlines the fact that the government still, as we head into the fifth week of this crisis, has no plan to deal with the escalating and compounding impacts of the crisis in the Middle East.

Despite Labor's senators lining up yesterday claiming they support struggling truckies as we debated the Fair Work amendment bill, ALP members do not seem to support the fuel price relief truckies were actually crying for. The real view of Labor MPs was expressed this morning in the morning papers. They were 'surprised'. They were 'perplexed by the Prime Minister's decision'. They were 'surprised that the government had adopted the opposition's policy'. Many of them were against it, and this was apparently an admission that the PM had no plan. This isn't the opposition saying this, and it's not the Greens. It is backbench Labor MPs in the other place. These same MPs warned that the measure would set 'a dangerous precedent'. To say most Labor backbenchers are perplexed would be an understatement.

So, when the Treasurer says the fuel excise relief in this bill is temporary, timely and responsible, he's only right in one of those three claims. It's not timely, because it's too late, too little, according to our truckies; it's not responsible, because the government has not matched this spend with a commensurate save in the federal budget; but it's definitely temporary. This is exactly why we need a select Senate committee to the government's response to the crisis in the Middle East. The compounding influence and impact of the government's failure in this regard; the ad hoc way they are adopting measures instead of a planned, proportionate response; the flat-footedness, particularly in the first four weeks; the flow-on impact that that will have right across our economy. Economists are saying that will have impacts over years, not just the weeks to come. I would encourage the Senate to think about a select committee, as we did for COVID. But we will be supporting this excise cut.

Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I wish to foreshadow my second reading amendment, which I neglected to do in my contribution just now.

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

I've got to comment now on the hypocrisy of the Greens. Senator Waters is saying, 'Bring our troops home.' Let me tell you: there's only one E-7A Wedgetail with a crew of 85 that are over there in the UAE, not in Iran, and that's to stop and to detect drone attacks for those 25,000 Australians that are over there. What a bunch of hypocrites they are, saying we are actually involved in the war. They say, 'Pick up the phone to Trump. You've got to stop this war,' as if the United States is going to listen to us, as if we've got this wonderful relationship with America, as if they're going to listen to what we have to say. They're blowing this completely out of proportion for the people who are watching this, as if we've got boatloads of troops going over there. This is the hypocrisy of the Greens about the situation that we are in now.

One Nation continues to set the agenda in this parliament and this country. While the major parties keep on claiming One Nation has no policies, they keep on copying them or adopting them. This happened a number of times during last year's federal election campaign. Labor has taken almost a year to implement One Nation's 2025 election policy to halve the fuel excise. Just as we did at the election, we advocated this policy as a measure to reduce the cost of living that has soared under this Labor government. It has taken a crisis exposing Australia's fuel insecurity for Labor to finally act. Obviously, they haven't been keeping up with us, because we've since upgraded that demand to a 100 per cent cut for three months. We advocate this policy, which would provide twice as much relief to motorists, farmers, miners and the transport industry as Labor's does.

However, our primary goal now is to heed the warning of this crisis and advocate a sovereign fuel industry. The conflict with the Iranian regime has exposed Australia. It has exposed how vulnerable we are to global economic shocks, even one caused by a conflict taking place more than 12,000 kilometres away from this building. It has exposed the failure of successive Labor and coalition governments to protect Australia from such shocks, despite many warnings over the years. They were warned to increase our onshore fuel reserves. They were warned to ensure we had a minimum of 90 days worth of fuel supplies. For decades, they've been warned to ensure Australia had the ability and capacity to be self-sufficient in critical areas like fuel production.

Australia is incredibly rich in energy and mineral resources. We have everything we need to be self-sufficient. Over the decades, the enormous economic potential of this abundance has been squandered. Australians should be the richest people in the world. We should have the highest standard of living in the world. We should be self-sufficient in virtually everything, with a huge manufacturing sector. We should have a powerful military, a world-leading economy and advanced technologies and research. We should have influence across the globe that matches such national strength.

What do we have instead? We have a weak military, a cost-of-living crisis, a housing crisis, a fuel crisis, a trillion-dollar federal debt and the profound economic self-harm that is net zero. We have the highest electricity prices in the world outside of Europe when we should have among the lowest thanks to an abundance of coal. We are facing shortages of natural gas, despite having some of the largest reserves in the world.

At this point, I have to call out the Greens and their economic incompetence. I'm calling out their obsession with renewables and their demonisation of the fossil fuels that provide nearly all of our energy requirements. If they think they can run this country on just renewables, it's an absolute joke. They've proposed a huge new tax on gas, not to ensure we get a fair share of revenue but to shut down the industry altogether. They're completely silent about the environmental destruction caused by the renewables rollout. They're happy to destroy the environment in their crusade to save it! This just doesn't make sense.

We have all the resources we need to establish a sovereign fuel industry which meets domestic demand. There are more than 17 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and potentially hundreds of billions of dollars locked up in shale. The United States have developed a shale-oil industry worth many billions of dollars per year. We need to wake up to ourselves.

Kerrynne Liddle (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australians will pay less for fuel, and they will pay less because the coalition led, and the government followed. When the fuel crisis emerged, it was the coalition that stepped up with a responsible plan to halve the fuel excise, seeking timely, temporary relief for Australians. The government—well, it delayed. After four weeks of denial and indecision, it was right to finally see the government come up with a national security plan. Better late than never—but the delay has had real consequences for real people.

We support the Treasury Laws Amendment (Fuel Excise Relief) Bill 2026 because Australians need immediate relief. Families and small businesses are under genuine pressure, and reducing costs at the bowser will make a meaningful difference, particularly ahead of Easter, when families are travelling and budgets are already stretched. Tradies, transport operators and small-business owners will see direct cost relief, and that of course is welcome. But let's not pretend this moment arrived without a fight. The coalition proposed this earlier. We put forward a responsible plan—one that included offsets, to avoid pouring fuel on an inflation fire. The government dragged its feet, and, in the meantime, the crisis deepened. This legislation, however, we welcome.

Nowhere has the crisis been more acute than in South Australia, where fuel is the most expensive in the nation. In the APY Lands, in remote South Australia, fuel costs are approaching $4 a litre for diesel, and they expect that will hit $4.50. Too little, too late means they are looking at shutting off bowsers within a week, not to conserve fuel for vehicles but to preserve what little remains for generators and essential transport. That is the reality on the ground that this government has been too slow to act on—too slow to even appreciate that it was real.

South Australia is already carrying the weight of record insolvencies under state and federal Labor governments. Families and businesses? Well, they've been doing it tough, with some of the highest electricity bills in the country in South Australia.

The government does not seem to understand that this crisis—the one it denied for nearly five weeks—is about global supply chains, costs and in-country logistics. This means it is all about access, even though Labor spent weeks arguing this was not an access issue. It's all about access when the bowser is dry. It is all about access when the price is too high and consumers simply can't afford it.

It is good that the government has finally done something rather than just talk about itself and blame others for the pain. I paid $3 a litre on Saturday, and on Sunday it was $3 25. If these prices continue to go up, a 26c-a-litre rebate just won't help. It will be worthless almost before it is provided.

What is guaranteed, though, is that, with no offsets offered, this is a plan to fuel inflation. It won't provide the fuel for farmers or for families. Within 24 hours of the announcement, the government's proposed GST arrangements had already fallen into disarray, raising serious questions about the fiscal credibility and coordination at the highest levels of government. That is on Labor.

As a government, it wants to blame everyone else. First, consumers were using too much fuel. This week, they're buying too many jerry cans to put the fuel into—again, suggesting it is consumers that are doing the wrong thing. The PM told Australians that Bunnings was out of jerry cans, but Bunnings itself came out and said, 'That claim is wrong, and, worse, it could trigger panic buying.' Seriously, if it weren't so serious, it could make an entertaining script. But none of this is funny. It's not funny for doctors. It's not funny for tourists. It's not funny for families trying to plan for Easter. None of this is funny.

The fuel security plan the government has finally released is light on detail. There are no quantifiable trigger points, there is no clarity on specifically what will happen next, and, critically, the Prime Minister has still not ruled out heavy-handed mandates. There is also no exit strategy. It's a temporary measure, but there is no clarity on what replaces it. What businesses and households need right now, in this economic crisis—which existed before the fuel crisis—is certainty. Australians are asking a very simple question: why is the Prime Minister always the last to lead out of a crisis? (Time expired)

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

One Nation was the first party to call this fuel shortage a crisis. We asked how much fuel we had on hand, and we were all told there wasn't a problem—just right-wing extremism. The government is playing catch-up. Labor has taken a year to implement One Nation's 2025 election policy to halve the fuel excise. In a crisis, Labor's cuts don't do enough. Our fuel resilience policy will cut the fuel excise completely. Today we have a bill, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Fuel Excise Relief) Bill 2026, being rushed forward through our parliament because the Albanese Labor government is panicking. Australians are getting hit in the hip pocket. The price of diesel has nearly doubled in Australia. This is an increase more than three times the global average, and Labor offers Australians a 26c reduction. Our policy will cut the full 52c per litre. We will provide twice as much relief at the bowser.

Our policy will also cut the GST paid on the fuel excise. Currently, the Albanese government is profiting by $300 million a month from the soaring spike in fuel prices while Australians are struggling. As the pain at the pump increases, so does the government's GST take on every litre. The government has halved the fuel tax, but it is still applying a 10 per cent GST on top of the total sale. It's an absolute disgrace.

We have seen the price of diesel nearly double over the last few weeks, and that's if you can get it. This bill won't be doing a thing to crack down on the supply manipulation by big oil companies. That's why One Nation has called for the Liquid Fuel Emergency Act to be triggered so supply can be forced out into the regions, bringing down prices for everyone.

Over 500 service stations across Australia have run out of fuel. In my home state of WA, the acting shire president of Esperance revealed that fuel arriving in the town port has been trucked 1,400 kilometres, and it travels in tankers all the way to Perth before coming all the way back down to Esperance so it can be available at their local service stations. Our families are hurting. Our farmers are hurting. Our WA farmers are seeding and putting crops in at much greater cost. It's a double hit if they can't get access to enough fertiliser due to availability and cost. If our farmers aren't getting the fuel and support they need, where's our food going to come from?

Australia has got to have a better plan. Our primary goal now is to advocate a resilient sovereign fuel industry. One Nation's plan is clear: trigger the national fuel emergency act; force supply to be delivered to regional areas and independent distributors; prioritise defence and essential services; drop the fuel excise completely; provide GST tax relief on fuel for three months; suspended the road user charges; develop policies that allow Australia to find, process and distribute fuel; refine our fuel and build new refineries; increase our fuel storage capacity—strategic fuel storage must be controlled by Australia on Australian shores; consider a national reserve with crude oil companies to prioritise Australia—the needs of Australia must be catered to first; and remove impediments to using domestically produced fuel.

Successive Labor and coalition governments have failed to protect Australia by allowing our refineries to close. The BP oil refinery in Kwinana closed in 2022. It had a capacity of 140,000 barrels per day. It was running at a profit and didn't need upgrading. At the time, BP was run by a bloke called Bernard Looney—oh, the irony! He became CEO in February 2020 and served until September 2023, during which time he spearheaded a strategic pivot towards renewable energy and set net zero ambitions. In effect, the Kwinana refinery was sacrificed on the altar of ideology.

This fuel crisis has been created by decades of net zero obsession destroying our ability to use our own resources. One Nation will abolish net zero and stop the billions in subsidies that Australians are paying for wind turbines. This will not only reduce power bills but also put $30 billion back in the pockets of Australians by abolishing the climate change department. For decades, One Nation has been saying we need to be self-reliant. We need to regain our sovereignty. We must take back control of our country. One Nation continues to set the agenda in this parliament and in this country.

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

The government is finally doing something, and we are grateful for that. Adopting the coalition's policy is a good thing, so we will be supporting this bill, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Fuel Excise Relief) Bill 2026. However, what is so starkly obvious again in this place, today and through this week in parliament, is that the government has no plan to deal with this crisis.

Let me read out a list quickly: Balingup, Esperance, Esperance again, Ningaloo, Geographe, Carnarvon, Walkaway, Fitzroy River, High Wycombe, Carnarvon, Maddington, Balcatta, Broome, Ningaloo, Exmouth, Mount Barker, Mount Barker again, Port Hedland, York, Geographe, Geographe again, Geraldton, Newman, Waterloo, Busselton, Ascot, Balga, Bentley, Broomehill, Canning Vale, Carlisle, Dayton, Forrestfield, Kaloorup, Gosnells, Maddington South, Middle Swan, Morley, Newman, Rous Head North Fremantle, Ridgewood, Southern River, Success, Wanneroo, Wattle Grove, Withers. They're the petrol stations in Western Australia either without diesel or without unleaded—and some of them are without any fuel at all. So, yes, it is welcome that we are going to see excise relief. It will help Australian families, and it's good that the Labor government has adopted our policy. However, we need to see a plan from this government for dealing with this crisis going forward.

I remind everybody that I first started getting calls about this issue from regional Western Australia in the first week of March. We came into this place and, day after day after day, when the coalition were raising questions of the government, we were told, 'Nothing to see here.' In fact, we were called right-wing crazies for suggesting there was a problem. Australians themselves were blamed for buying the fuel they needed to keep their businesses running. It was their fault. So a farmer getting fuel to commence seeding, a truckie getting fuel to keep driving his truck or the many tens of thousands—hundreds of thousands, millions—of Australians who rely on fuel to keep their businesses running were blamed for the fuel crisis. The government didn't look to itself.

Only after more than a week in this place with us raising questions did the government admit that there was a problem, admit there was a crisis, admit that something had to be done about it, and now it's taken many more weeks before we've got to the point of them doing anything about the problem that was clear to everyone at the beginning of this month. In fact, it should have been clear to the government. The government itself told diplomatic families to leave the Middle East—particularly in Israel and Beirut, but it also recommended departure from places like UAE—on 25 February. They should have seen that this was at least a high-likelihood risk. If they are saying to diplomatic families that it's too dangerous to stay in the Middle East then they were considering there to be a very high risk of conflict. And what happens to the price of oil whenever there is a conflict in the Middle East? I can tell you. Look back over history. Anybody who's looked back over history knows what happens to the price of oil and sometimes the availability.

Now we've had both of those things affect Australia. We still have serious issues in our distribution system, as revealed by that list of Western Australian petrol stations that have no petrol or diesel.

David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Treasury Laws Amendment (Fuel Excise Relief) Bill 2026. I acknowledge and support the intent of this bill. We are seeing fuel prices skyrocketing, and that flows through to everything—to groceries, freight and the broader cost of living that Australians have been struggling with for many years now. In that context, it's right that the government looks for ways to provide relief. But good intentions by themselves do not make good policy, and this bill and this policy have some very significant flaws. Despite these concerns, I won't be opposing this bill, in recognition of the urgent need for relief provided by cutting the fuel excise in half. But I would like to take this opportunity to put on the record some of my concerns and the concerns of experts and a number of Canberrans who have contacted my office.

First, this is far from the best way to spend a huge amount of taxpayer money. This is a measure that will cost the budget more than $2.5 billion in just three months. At a time when we are already seeing persistent deficits and growing debt, that is not a trivial decision. A cut to the fuel excise also spreads relief across everyone who uses fuel, regardless of need. That means it benefits high-income households more than those who are struggling most. Research from the e61 Institute shows that measures like this disproportionately benefit higher income earners. At its core, this is clearly a blunt instrument. When we're being told that there is no money in the budget for things like food pantries and other frontline services, it seems that blunt instruments are the wrong tools. If we are serious about helping people, we should be directing support to those who actually need it, not subsidising fuel consumption across the board.

This cut to the fuel excise makes it more likely that we will see supply crunches, and it has struck me as odd that, at a time where we desperately need fuel in the regions and fuel for farmers, we're doing something that will potentially increase demand in metropolitan areas. Obviously, there are people in metro areas that need the fuel, but, in terms of the broader approach, there are questions to be answered. I'm concerned that this increases the likelihood of interest rate rises, causing even more pain for Australians, where we just shovel our money to the banks—at a time when supply is already under pressure, the last thing we should be doing.

A professor of economics at the University of New South Wales, Richard Holden, has described this as a 'very bad idea', warning it will increase demand and worsen shortages. Economist Chris Richardson has said cutting the fuel excise 'keeps inflation higher for longer than it otherwise would have been'. And independent economist Saul Eslake put it plainly:

It might be good politics, that's for others to judge, but it's not good economics.

Shane Wright has written, with characteristic bluntness:

The Reserve Bank must be having kittens.

He goes on to say:

Bipartisan bowser populism is not going to help.

That's what this bill is—policy driven more by short-term political appeal than by long-term economic sense. You have to think that the Treasurer has had very real concerns about this sort of decision. But it's something, and anything is badly needed at this point of what is now genuinely a fuel crisis.

As I said in my second reading speech on the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation Amendment (Strategic Reserve) Bill 2026, beyond the immediate response we must confront the deeper issue: our dependence on volatile, expensive, imported fossil fuels. The transition will take time, and there are sectors, like agriculture, where liquid fuels will remain essential for a while yet, but, if we're serious about resilience, we cannot keep reaching for short-term fixes that entrench the very vulnerability we are trying to escape. Australians deserve policies that are not just well meaning but well designed, fair and economically sound, policies that take the huge challenges we face and actually turn them into opportunities in the future.

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

All these bills are coming before the parliament this week to solve the fuel crisis, when the real solution would be to solve the government crisis. Reducing the excise on fuel was part of One Nation's 2025 federal election campaign.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Excuse me, Senator Roberts—can you maybe just be a little bit lower in terms of the sound? It's—

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

I'm already pretty short!

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you for your good humour.

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

I first announced this One Nation policy on 11 February 2025 in a Senate adjournment debate. The policy was repeated in my adjournment speech on 25 March 2025 as part of our election promise to cut $13 billion worth of excises to put more money back into the pockets of everyday Australians. Not only have the Labor Party stolen the policy; they've stolen the slogan about putting more money back in people's pockets.

My talking point is similar to one I've heard today. It's this: the ACCC monitor fuel prices daily, and I'm confident the reduction will be passed on to consumers. Fuel is an input cost right across the economy. Lowering fuel prices lowers commuting costs for consumers and transport costs across the economy, including for groceries, saving consumers and industry $8 billion a year. The policy was a hit and helped to start the orange tidal wave, the orange movement.

Senator Hanson spoke to One Nation's policy to reduce the fuel excise in her senator's statement on 5 March 2026. In a statement on fuel prices and security amid Middle East tensions, Senator Hanson said:

The government collects 51.6c per litre in fuel excise. One Nation was elected on a policy to halve that tax, cutting 26c a litre immediately, with compensation for any truckies and farmers losing rebates. The Morrison government took our advice in 2022 for six months—

They took our advice—

but didn't look after truckies and farmers. It's time for the Albanese government to do the same and deliver cheaper fuel for Australians in 2026.

On 2 March, I raised the fuel crisis two days after the jets flew from Israel into Iran. On 12 March, I spoke on the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Amendment (Domestic Reserve) Bill 2026 and called for the excise to be halved. This week, Senator Hanson called for the fuel excise to be removed and for the road user tax on trucks to be suspended for three months. One Nation, One Nation, One Nation, One Nation. Our policy is not to remove the GST on fuel, though reducing the excise 52c a litre will reduce the GST by 5c and end this immoral tax on a tax that both you parties support.

So, here we are. After 13 months of One Nation patiently explaining to the ideologues on my left why reducing the fuel tax will help everyday Australians and stimulate the economy, finally, lo and behold, One Nation policy is now government policy. As I explained a minute ago, it's not inflationary. It increases productivity. I did hear Senator Waters describe this bill as 'rushed'. The bill is rushed. The idea of fuel duty relief, though, is not.

It was amusing to listen to the Liberal Party and the National Party take credit for the idea. I went back and looked to see when the Liberals first started talking about cutting the excise on petrol and diesel. It was on 26 March 2026, last week, after four weeks. Yet, somehow, the Libs claim it was the Liberals who forced the Albanese government to introduce an excise cut. Nonsense. This is the second time today the Liberals have dispensed with the truth. Senator Cash's speech on the cash ban regulations was factually false. It misrepresented the truth, and we will explain to the people of Farrer how the Liberals and the Nationals sold out the bush. Today, the uniparty was on display for everyone to see. Look at them down there. The Labor, Liberal and National uniparty were defending their big mates in big banking—their big donors in big banking.

The Treasury Laws Amendment (Fuel Excise Relief) Bill 2026 implements a 50 per cent cut in petrol and diesel duty and suspends the road user charge. One Nation will support this sensible measure to reduce the cost of petrol by 31c for everyday Australians and 32.5c for the trucking industry. This will keep the trucks moving, putting food on the shelves at the supermarket, stock in the shops, medical supplies in hospitals and dentists and ensuring the economy doesn't melt down entirely as a result of the war in Iran.

I remind people that One Nation were the first to raise the fuel supply, fuel security and price volatility issues. We were the second, we were the third, we were the fourth, and we were the fifth, before the Nationals and the Liberals even dreamt of it. They're playing catch-up. We are having crisis after crisis, and you lot over there in the government accused us of being far-right-wing extremists. We are correct, we are right, and we hit the target before you even dreamt of it.

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

I thank senators who have contributed to this debate very much. The war in the Middle East is battering the global economy. Oil prices today are around twice what they were at the start of 2026 as a result of that conflict. This bill will deliver temporary and targeted support to Australian motorists and truckies in a responsible way. The schedules in the bill will temporarily halve the fuel excise for petrol and diesel and facilitate changes to the heavy vehicle road user charge to allow it to be reduced to zero temporarily. Halving the fuel excise will cut 26.3c a litre off the cost of petrol and diesel. Including the reduction in the GST component, this will cut the cost of a 65-litre tank of fuel by nearly $19. Reducing the heavy road user charge to zero will save truckies around $130 on a 400-litre tank of fuel.

The bill also provides additional flexibility to make further adjustments to the rate of excise, if needed, to give effect to the undertaking from the states at the National Cabinet on GST. The government's focus is on easing cost-of-living pressures, securing our fuel supply and getting it to where it's needed the most. The steps we're taking in this bill today are in addition to all of the actions we've already taken to date to support supply and distribution and empower the ACCC to crack down on misconduct. I commend the bill to the Senate.

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

We are dealing with the second reading amendments on sheet 3763 moved by Senator Chandler. Senator Roberts has indicated he wants part (a) put separately, so I intend to put part (a) first. So the question is that part (a) from sheet 3763 as moved by Senator Chandler be agreed to.

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

The question is that the remainder of Senator Chandler's second reading amendment, parts (b) through (g), be agreed to.

Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move the second reading amendment on sheet 3761 standing in my name:

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate:

(a) notes:

(i) the Albanese Government was the first government in the world to support President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu's illegal war and they bear some responsibility for the chaos it has inflicted on businesses and household budgets,

(ii) the need for additional short-term solutions such as free public transport and supporting uptake of electric vehicles and electric trucks, and

(iii) the need for medium-term solutions to electrify our economy and end our dependence on fossil fuels; and

(b) acknowledges that halving the fuel excise will give people some short-term relief, but financial pressures and economic vulnerability will persist until our economy shifts off its dependence on imported oil and on to renewable energy independence".

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

The question is that the second reading amendment on sheet 3761 be agreed to.