MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE
Mr REBELLO (McPherson) (16:02): The absolute nerve of those opposite to come into this place at a time when Australians are doing it tougher than ever before and lecture us on leadership—the absolute nerve. We heard nothing but buzzwords, nothing but plans. 'We're going to take action. We're going to do X, Y, Z'—no details, but a lecture on leadership, something that those opposite are absolutely lacking.
Australians are looking for leadership right now. They are crying out for leadership, because we have a prime minister, a treasurer and an energy minister who are not prepared to be upfront and honest with the Australian people and who are not prepared to have direct conversations with Australians at a time when Australians are concerned, at a time when they're anxious.
What we're seeing is that they're sending mixed messages, and that's resulting in confusion. It's resulting in people who, at a time when Australians should be celebrating—we're approaching Easter. Families should be coming together.
People should be thinking about things other than how they're going to get to places or if they can get to places. We're seeing people on that side of the chamber dismissing those concerns. Mr Wallace: Nothing to see here.
Mr REBELLO: There's nothing to see here; that's right. What we need is reassurance about the plan, and we need transparency. This is something that we have asked for time and time again, in question time and at every opportunity we have had.
We need to know what's going on with this fuel crisis. We have memories of COVID—and I speak to the people in my electorate of McPherson, especially because we are a border community down the southern end of the Gold Coast—and the country went through a lot. The world went through a lot.
We need some sort of reassurance from this government, from this prime minister, that the government is in control and that our lives are not going to be taken over by government again. The Prime Minister has previously passed the buck to states and territories, and he sent out his minister for climate change and energy, who I think, somewhat unscripted, came out and said, 'This is a national crisis.' So we've seen mixed messages time and time again.
Just about every day, in question time, the coalition has stood up and asked things that I think are relatively simple. We've asked about fuel stockholdings. We've asked about outages at petrol stations.
We've asked about shipment delays and details. For a government that spends so much time talking about transparency, talking about integrity and talking about the importance of democracy, we're not getting any of those qualities from this so-called leadership. Australians deserve to know what is going on now.
The coalition is prepared to be constructive, and one of the things that members on this side of the House have said is that we are happy with the fact that the government has come to the table in relation to reducing the fuel excise. This is something that we have been calling out for. The Prime Minister and the minister seemed to just ignore it over the weekend, and then they came back this week and said, 'Yes— Mr Wallace: They weren't thinking about doing it.
Mr REBELLO: They weren't thinking about it; they took a weekend off! And now they've come back and said, 'Yes, we're going to agree with the coalition and we're going to do this.' We will take it. That is great.
It is good for the Australian people, because they're hurting from this fuel crisis. But it's not just the fuel crisis. It's the fuel crisis on top of everything else.
It's on top of all the pressures that have been piled on, one after the other. That's not to mention the 14 interest rate rises, not to mention their mortgages going up and not to mention the costs of groceries, electricity, fuel and everything; insurance is a massive one. This is on top of all of that.
Despite the fact that one government minister referred to our idea of cutting the fuel excise as a 'thought bubble', they've now adopted it, and we applaud them on doing that, although every day they didn't do it it cost Australians $16 million in extra fuel costs. Coming to the table is not leadership, so to the member for Moreton, who spoke before, I say that, instead of coming in here and lecturing us on leadership, you should actually look at yourselves— Ms Campbell: You asked us to come here and talk about leadership.
Mr REBELLO: And don't be interjecting when you're not in your seat. You can blame everybody else, but, when it comes to leadership, you should actually sit up and pay attention because the Australian people deserve that. Mr Caldwell: On the point of order raised by the member for McPherson, I think it would be timely to just remind members— The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Claydon ): He didn't raise one.
He didn't give me the courtesy of addressing it at all, so sit down, please. I do not need to remind members; otherwise, I would have reminded your side some time ago as well.