QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS

Senator MULHOLLAND (Queensland) (16:20): Recent global conflict and shipping disruptions have shown us just how fragile our fuel supply chain can be. We know Australia imports the vast majority of its fuel from overseas, and that is a vulnerability that we simply cannot ignore. I will get to just how we got into that position shortly.

In my home state of Queensland we operate one of Australia's two only refineries, the Ampol refinery in Lytton, home to more than 550 refinery workers. They have been working around the clock to keep up with the current peak in demand. So we thank them for their hard work at this critical time.

And supporting the work of our refinery workers are Queensland's hardworking truck drivers and transport operators. Our transport operators have been delivering tanker after tanker of fuel across the country. They have also been feeling the pinch of the spike in demand for fuel.

This government has taken action to help our trucking industry manage the impacts of the Iranian conflict. The government will amend the Fair Work Act to allow truckies and road transport businesses to make an emergency application for an order to deal with the current spike in fuel prices. The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Polley ): Senator McKenzie, a point of order?

Senator McKenzie: Could I draw your attention to the question before the chair. This is to take note of answers. The government's solutions bore no— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator McKenzie, we know this is a wide-ranging debate, considering that— Senator McKenzie: She's referring to legislation that— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: we're taking note of all coalition questions.

Please resume your seat. Senator Mulholland, please continue. Senator MULHOLLAND: I do note that the question from Senator Liddle was, how did the government allow this crisis to escalate?

And we're exactly talking about how we got to that position. The actions, or the inactions, while Senator McKenzie was sitting on the frontbench of the last government is exactly how we got here. Rather than going around in trucks and pretending to be a truck driver, we are doing something about this industry, and we are putting through legislation to protect this industry at this critical time.

So I want to acknowledge the efforts of the Transport Workers' Union on this important issue. We must remember that it is the union movement that has always defended our sovereign fuel capacity in this nation. And we know it is the Australian Workers Union that has always come to this capital city to defend our local refineries, particularly the Lytton refinery.

It took the AWU, back in 2020, coming to Canberra to save our Lytton refinery, which was going to shut under the Morrison government. Do you remember those guys? Yeah, we do.

This is the same coalition that bowls into question time and tries to rewrite history about their legacy with our sovereign fuel capacity—which is ironic, given that Senator Cadell comes into this place and waxes lyrical, quoting Napolean. These are the same characters who said nothing when six of our eight refineries closed in this country—six of our eight refineries, gone under the last coalition government—thousands of Australian jobs in industry gone under their watch.

That is 75 per cent of our refineries shut under the coalition. Many of those opposite were sitting on the frontbench at that time, and they didn't say a word. They sat by and watched our refineries shut, one after the other: in Queensland, in Western Australia, in Victoria and in New South Wales—all of them gone, just like the car industry, gone under the coalition.

This is a coalition who wants to talk a big game about sovereign capability in manufacturing and our critical industries, but their legacy was killing off our car industry and shutting our refineries. Just yesterday the Nationals were in here talking down efforts to protect our smelters. They came into this place yesterday mocking the deal the government has done with the Queensland government to protect the Boyne aluminium smelter in Central Queensland.

More than 3,000 jobs are sustained at that one smelter alone, and they couldn't care less. They mocked it. They mocked those jobs in Central Queensland.

That's their legacy.