QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS

Senator DOWLING (Tasmania) (15:06): Regarding fuel security, clearly Australians are watching events in the Middle East with concern and obviously concern about how it's going to impact them back home. History tells us that, when instability grips that region, global energy markets are quick to react: prices move, supply chains tighten and the consequences are felt well beyond the conflict itself.

Australia is not immune from those pressures, and I don't think anybody would for a moment pretend otherwise. In these sorts of moments we also need to work with Australians, who expect calm, competent government that coordinates across the system and acts in the national interest. That's exactly what the Albanese Labor government has done, and it's done it swiftly.

We've empowered the ACCC to intensify fuel price monitoring and investigate anticompetitive conduct. That is because in an international crisis we need to be thinking not about commercial opportunity but the needs of Australians. We've boosted supply by releasing 20 per cent of the minimum stockholding obligation for petrol and diesel.

And we've fast-tracked fuel-standard changes so that additional fuel can reach the market sooner. We're also coordinating with industry and states to ensure that fuel reaches regional communities and agricultural producers who depend on diesel. And we've appointed a national Fuel Supply Taskforce Coordinator to strengthen cross-government and industry coordination.

This all stands in pretty stark contrast to those opposite, who've given us a lot of talk, but when they had the opportunity they did nothing to build fuel resilience in this country, with a newly found discovery of fuel security now that they're on the opposition benches. Refining capacity declined on the watch. They spent nearly a decade in office leaving Australians more exposed to fuel insecurity, not less.

Strategic stockholding obligations were delayed, and long-term fuel security planning drifted somewhere between the bottom drawer and the too-hard basket. So when those opposite now rise to deliver grave lectures on fuel security, Australians might be forgiven for raising an eyebrow. The reality is that when the coalition had the chance to strengthen Australia's fuel resilience they managed to look the other way.

This government, by contrast, has been doing the practical work required to keep Australia's fuel supply secure and our economy moving. Fuel continues to arrive in Australia. Our refineries are operating, and supply chains do remain resilient.

Australians should purchase the fuel they need—no more—while this government continues doing the practical work to make sure that fuel security is there for all Australians. I'll conclude by saying that while we are focused on fuel security we are also getting the job done in terms of economic policy and the signing of the EU-Australia free trade agreement. It's disappointing to see the Nationals revert to type—the old mercantilist, agrarian, socialist thinking that wants to put up protection barriers, to raise tariffs.

And of course they've come out and opposed this deal, chasing One Nation on an economic policy to try to lock Australia off from the world and put up tariff barriers when actually we've come up with a huge opportunity. We've unlocked the biggest market, the EU. It will diversify our trade relationship.

Countries that trade with each other don't fight with each other. It's diversifying and unlocking a high-income market of 450 million people with a GDP of $30 trillion. We've eliminated EU tariffs on most Australian goods, benefiting exporters, lowering the cost of imports sourced from the EU, and benefiting Australian business.

That is a great deal for Australia, and it's shameful those opposite oppose it.