MATTERS OF URGENCY

Senator GHOSH (Western Australia) (16:25): What you have here is the problem when you come up with a political attack and then you try to shape reality to meet that attack rather than deal with the facts on the ground. What I want to look at is this urgency motion and the words in it. It says the Albanese government needs to 'take responsibility for fuel supply disruptions and rising prices'.

We are in the middle of a global oil supply crisis, and, while we appreciate the omnipotence that's attributed to us in the sense that we would be responsible for this, the facts show how absurd the political position the Liberal Party has taken in this place is. And that is there are 11 million barrels a day out of the market. It's a global supply crisis.

That's not what the government has done. Opposition senators interjecting— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Polley ): Senators, we have standing orders, and I remind people on the left to adhere to the standing orders, please, and allow the senator to be heard in silence. Senator Shoebridge: It's the first time I've heard them described that way.

They're not on the left! The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Shoebridge, you're cutting into the senator's time. I remind you that you also have to abide by the standing orders in this place like every other senator.

Senator GHOSH: I appreciate that they might not like the absurdity of their motion put back to them, but that is 11 million barrels a day out of global markets, and somehow the Albanese government is supposed to take responsibility for that. It's an absurd premise. That's 140 billion cubic metres of gas out of global markets.

I suppose that's the Albanese government's fault too! There were 40 energy assets destroyed in the Middle East. I suppose that's the Albanese government's fault too—as distinct from the government of Iran, which is attempting to disrupt oil supplies across the region.

So the problem you have when you start from these premises and you warp your reality in order to deliver a political attack is the facts unpick and undo them. The next part that I'm going to turn to explains how fuel will be delivered better to Australians. I think, if they had been listening to the minister's answers in question time today and what's been said by the government, the most important thing that's being done—other than the additional release of 20 per cent of our fuel reserves to address regional shortages—is standing up a new fuel supply taskforce and ensuring that we have proper coordination of where fuel is going to be delivered to in this country in order to address real need.

That taskforce drives coordination between the Commonwealth and the states and territories on fuel security, and it is designed to build supply chain resilience. It's intended to provide consistent and coordinated updates to the Commonwealth, states and territories on fuel supply outlooks, where fuel is, where it's going and how we're going to deal with this crisis.

It's a significant problem we've got in this country, and all they want to do is come in here and lob political attacks rather than focus on solutions. Senator Scarr: Minister O'Neil said there's more fuel than ever. Senator GHOSH: Senator Scarr, you might not like what's in your motion, but it's your motion.

Senator Scarr: You haven't mentioned her once. Senator GHOSH: Well, I'm talking about the substance. You might want to do personal attacks; I'm talking about the substance of how we're delivering fuel around the rest of the country.

The other thing we're doing is supporting state and territory governments to get fuel to the regions where they are in demand. We know diesel is a significant fuel stock for trucking and for industry and mining in Western Australia. It's also important for transport, so it is important that we get more diesel into the Australian market at the moment.

That's why we've expanded the number of source points that we're getting diesel from. We've opened up the opportunity to import it from the United States, the EU and Canada. But we're also focused on trying to deliver clear, sensible and reasoned messaging about where things are.

It's in the back end of this motion. It's been at the back end of a lot of what's been said in this chamber today and for the last week. The attempt on the other side, rather than engaging in reasonable debate on this and rather than treating it like a national problem-solving exercise as a consequence of a global oil supply crisis, is to come in here and run political attacks.

Rule this in. Rule that out. Rule emergency services in or out.

We are obviously focused on trying to get fuel to where it needs to be. We are obviously focused on trying to make sure that the information is delivered to Australians so that they understand how we're managing this crisis. And all we get is an attempt to drum up alarm on the other side, an attempt to score political points.

I think that's really why I've got a problem with the underlying nature of this motion. It doesn't attempt to solve a real problem—a global supply crisis in oil. The government is attempting to deal with it, and all we get is contumely from the other side.