Parliamentary Updates

I have to start by just calling out how ridiculous the situation is that we find ourselves in this morning. The coalition thought they would be clever, moved a suspension of standing order motion to bring on urgent debate on legislation, to, increase the penalties under the ACCC in relation to, a number of offences, but in particular to address the concerns around fuel gouging.

Of course, as the gamemanship between the major parties always is in play, the government responded by agreeing to that motion, but amending it to introduce to include for debate, urgent debate and another piece of legislation being, the fair work, fairer fuel amendment in relation to truckees.

I will get to the substance of those. It's ridiculous, but, as we are so often put in this position in this place, we have to weigh up the question of proper process over the substance of an issue and where so often these measures are done and used for issues that are not genuinely urgent.

I do, in this situation, agree that at the end of the day, if you're going to have game playing by both sides, you all end up with the same mess. But, Australians actually want some certainty and they want some action to happen when it comes to fuel prices. So despite the coalition and the government's poor parliamentary practice seen this morning, I agreed to hasten the debate on action on fuel prices because there is urgency on this issue.

It's not a hypothetical risk or talking point for tomorrow. Australians are already paying more at the bowser and hundreds of service stations across the country have been without at least one fuel type. This week in New South Wales alone, the federal government said on 24 March that there is 164 stations without diesel and 289 without at least one fuel type.

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It's exactly why action matters now. The lesson is brutally simple. When global oil markets are shocked, Australians get hit at home through fuel, freight, food and inflation. We need to understand that genuine resilience is renewable energy resilience, real national resilience does not come from staying hooked on imported fuel and hoping the next global shock is kinder.

What is occurring in the Strait of Hormuz is a brutal reminder that overseas fuel shocks flow directly into household costs, freight costs, food prices and inflation here at home. And the stakes are high in Warringah. I'm being told that many people are opting for public transport, but public transport is at capacity, trying to save on fuel use.

But we do not have the public transport infrastructure or the numbers of buses to cope with the demand. So in the Short term, we need transparency, enforcement and targeted relief. Stronger penalties for misleading conduct and market abuse are part of that. And our direct support is better than blunt political gimmicks that can worsen shortages.

Economists quoted today warned that cutting fuel excise would increase demand into an already strained market. So it's clear we need to electrify the economy, electrify transport, expand charging infrastructure, modernise the grid and make it easier, not harder, for households and businesses to move away from oil dependence.

Now, what we're seeing around these two legislations, is first, the first piece of legislation is to ensure, that there is greater consequences. A major part of laws and consequences for breach for poor conduct is ultimately deterrence.

The penalties must be significant to outweigh the benefits gained by those price gouging. So where we need to build on, that, and make sure that, and that's part of this legislation, the ACCC amendment, the doubling penalties enforcement.

So that legislation, of course, I would have liked much more time to analyse it and properly question it, is designed to double the maximum penalties for false and misleading conduct and cartel behaviour, lifting the top penalty, to $100 million per offence, while leaving the existing alternative penalty formulas in place, such as three times the value of the benefit obtained or 30% of adjusted turnover where applicable.

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So while it's been sold politically in the context of the fuel price spike, and the action of some retailers, it does sit alongside the broader package of a stronger ACCC, which I think is desperately needed to ensure Australians are properly protected. The other piece of legislation proposes to enable the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations to authorise the reduction of the minimum six months consultation period required before the Commission can make road transport contractual chain orders in circumstances where there are imminent and significant negative impacts on the road transport industry nationally and where it's in the public interest to reduce this time frame in the context of what is currently occurring in our transport sector.

With fuel prices spiking. I accept that there is a need for this to be acted upon urgently, but I ask the major parties please behave better and give us proper scrutiny of legislation.