MATTERS OF URGENCY

Senator DOLEGA (Tasmania) (16:37): I rise to oppose the motion from Senator Scarr today. In the motion, the senator notes that the government is blaming everyone else for fuel disruptions and rising prices and won't rule out placing restrictions. Here we go again—the former party of government persists with fear mongering and chasing One Nation to the bottom.

I'm going to reflect on comments made in the chamber yesterday, I think, by Senator Antic when he was having a bit of a tanty about previous restrictions involving mandates, movement restrictions and QR codes. I think he's forgetting that he was in the government who placed those restrictions in. Regardless of the time, that was a national crisis in a pandemic.

What did the Labor opposition do? We may have had feedback about some of the things that you were doing and the decisions you were making, but, in the national interest, the Labor opposition backed in your government to support the community. What do we see now?

We see a national crisis, with a war in the Middle East that is creating havoc and chaos with the global fuel supply, and we have the other side playing politics and scaring people—as Minister Ayres said the other day, they're scaring little old ladies—into unusual buying patterns, which is, in part, creating unusual purchasing behaviour. People are right to react in their own way.

People have businesses and things they need to use fuel for, and it is right for them to make these decisions in their own minds. But as leaders in this place we have a duty to, in the national interest, come together in this parliament and provide certainty and stability for the Australian people, and they expect nothing less. We have, in the last days and weeks, been taking action to give the ACCC stronger powers to crack down on unfair behaviour.

The ACCC will be able to issue on-the-spot fines for price gouging. We will double the maximum fines for misleading conduct, from $50 million to $100 million, for the likes of Ampol, BP and Shell. The ACCC is watching them closely and monitoring prices.

If people are being ripped off at the bowser, we will find out. Australia deserves fair prices, and on this side we won't tolerate price gouging. In the last few days we've also set up—and I spoke about this in my contribution yesterday—the national Fuel Supply Taskforce.

The taskforce will be led by Anthea Harris, a respected former head of the Energy Regulator, working in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, across portfolios, to coordinate and to get fuel where it's needed. The taskforce will monitor supply and demand in real time. In the interest of transparency, this government has been releasing the figures that Senator Liddle was talking about.

Because we are transparent, we are giving the information to the people so they know what's happening in the supply chains. There's nothing to hide. We should be working together to fix it.

The Prime Minister has been working closely with our international partners and our longstanding friends, including the prime minister of Singapore, to secure fuel and energy needs. Building on our strategic partners, we've committed at both government levels to deepening regional cooperation, accelerating the renewable energy transition and addressing unjustified import and export restrictions so that petrol and diesel will continue to flow our way.

I did speak about this yesterday, but I am going to say it again: in this government we support truckies, and we're helping Australia's trucking industry manage the impact of the war in the Middle East by ensuring truckies and transport operators are better protected from fuel price rises. With the global uncertainty leading to significant impacts on our transport industry, we are taking action to support truckies and operators.

As my truckie colleague and great advocate for the trucking industry, Senator Sterle, will attest, truckies keep the Australian economy moving. We are making sure they are not going to be taken advantage of. We are stepping in to help create fitness through the supply chain to manage the impact of the global crisis.

We will amend the Fair Work Act to allow truckies and road transport businesses to make an emergency application to the Fair Work Commission for a contract chain order to deal with the current spike in fuel prices caused by the war in the Middle East.