QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator WONG (South Australia—Minister for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the Government in the Senate) (14:21): What we are doing is trying to support the Australian people at a difficult time. What we are doing is implementing a range of changes which are about trying to prevent companies from price gouging and taking advantage of the situation that we see. Senator McKim is entitled to his political view.

He's not entitled— Honourable senators interjecting— The PRESIDENT: Order on my right, both at this end of the chamber and at the bottom end. Minister Wong, please continue. Senator WONG: We are seeking to support Australians and a time that is very difficult.

There is not a silver bullet that can magically resolve the conflict in the Middle East, the effect on international energy markets and the ongoing longer term effects in terms of disrupted supply chains. One of the aspects of what we have seen is excessive prices. The advice I have is that behaviours that lead to excessive prices are already prohibited, including cartel conduct, price fixing and false and misleading information.

So there are strong laws in place to tackle price gouging at its source. The expectation from the government and, I'm sure, from the community is that the ACCC should be throwing the book at petrol retailers who engage in illegal conduct which leads to unfair higher prices, such as price fixing, acting as a cartel or making false and misleading reasons for their price rises.

The PRESIDENT: Senator McKim, first supplementary?