STATEMENTS BY SENATORS
Senator COLLINS (New South Wales—Deputy Opposition Whip in the Senate) (13:10): The current fuel crisis has once again shone a light on this Labor government's inaction on national resilience and our exposure to global emergencies. The lack of effective sovereign supply chains for our most basic needs has laid bare this government's policy on the run—not policy to prepare.
The energy system—liquid fuels for our transport, fertiliser for our crops and cheap, reliable coal and gas—is in abundance in Australia, yet we face shortages and spiralling costs. The reasons for this are clear. The Albanese government has put ideology before practicality.
In appealing to a net zero mandate set by overseas vested interests, the government are trying to live in the world they want, not the world as it is. The Peace Research Institute Oslo reports the world has undergone a structural shift, with inter- and intrastate violence at a level not seen since World War II. This is the world we find ourselves in and the one that we must prepare to face.
Yet the most serious and increasingly likely disruption to Australia's way of life will make the current Middle East fuel crisis seem inconsequential. A disruption to maritime trade in the South China Sea due to the People's Republic of China assaulting Taiwan would be felt across the full breadth of Australian society, not just at the petrol bowser. Let's be very clear here: the timeline for preparation for this is shrinking rapidly.
Xi's ambition to retake Taiwan has meant his forces have had to prepare for 2027. That's just next year. China is Australia's largest trading partner, and that partnership is growing.
Even without military intervention by Australia, the Malacca Strait and Chinese ports will be effectively inoperable in such a conflict. That means even less fuel making it to Australia than in the current crisis. It means less advanced economy end products; a drastic reduction in pharmaceuticals, vital chemicals, water and industry; and the potential to cut our communications with the outside world completely with undersea cable degradation.
In the face of this, the Albanese government, in real terms, has cut the defence budget, and our national security strategy is years out of date. It's basically unusable now. Only the coalition will properly plan to protect Australians' way of life.
Manufacturing is the bedrock of self-reliance, and, without a sophisticated manufacturing base, Australia remains at the mercy of international logistics which can be severed by conflict or pandemics, as we have seen over the past few years and today. We must rapidly rearm our Defence Force with weapons built in Australia from Australian steel and plastics and hard work.
We must ensure our domestic industries have the tools for success, such as low-cost power, highly skilled Australians and reliable sovereign supply chains. We must harness the abundant energy resources of this great country of ours: coal, gas and uranium. Enough of the excuses.
It is time to deliver results. Australians are facing the greatest geostrategic challenge of our time, yet we are also facing reduction in real terms of our defence budget, a fragmented foreign policy, a society with frayed cohesion, a government out of step with its allies and our domestic industrial resilience under extreme stress. The Prime Minister is walking us towards failure as a nation, and he needs to do his job, or we should find someone who will.