Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

He has given it a little bit of a nudge, and the screaming and ranting of the honourable members opposite after the Prime Minister was heard in silence is a pretty fair indication of the extent to which they are feeling the barbecue stopper pressure at this point in time as the Australian people experience the consequences of the triple whammy: rising interest rates, which themselves involve a massive breach of trust by the Prime Minister; increasing petrol prices; and now a substantial threat to their capacity to enjoy the rights they have in the workplace and the remuneration that they get from their jobs. They are feeling that pressure intensely, and some of that pressure seems to be emerging onto the Liberal Party backbench.

We welcome any relief at the petrol pump for Australian families because they are experiencing such considerable difficulty at this time. But this is not even a beginning. It might be the beginning of a beginning, but it is not even a beginning in dealing with the challenges that we now confront in order to render ourselves independent of Middle East oil or even a decent effort at giving some succour to the people who are experiencing those regular rip-offs at the petrol pump when they go away on weekends, on holidays or whatever. Meanwhile, the Treasurer persistently under questioning in this place says he is going to give no decent reference to and make no demands on the one protective agency that they have—the ACCC. I will say a bit more about that later on.

There is too little in these measures to uncouple us from the tyranny of overseas oil. There is no vision for the fuel industry we need—an independent Australian fuel industry—so we are not forever at the mercy of foreign oil cartels, so that overnight price spikes in Saudi Arabian oil do not spark a fault line in the family budget and the national economy. It has taken this Prime Minister far too long to act on this petrol issue. We in the opposition have been talking about a long-term plan for fuel independence since last October. That is when we released our blueprint on fuels—our plan to develop a diversified, home-grown fuel industry so we are not permanently held hostage to Middle East oil prices.

Today the Prime Minister announced that he is taking up some of Labor’s proposals and that he will look at a few others, but that is about it. In the national interest, I urge him to swallow his pride and adopt all of them, because, as the Australian says today:

... Australia has the capacity to break its dependence on imported crude oil. But this will not be done by political posturing and bandaid solutions.

This particular solution comes into the category of not quite the bandaid; taking the paper off the bandaid is the form this solution presents. In the interests of Australian families and in the interests of our economy, adopt Labor’s comprehensive plan to build an independent Australian fuels industry. To relieve the pressure on families today, immediately give the consumer watchdog, the ACCC, the powers it needs to investigate petrol pricing, not just tinker at the edges and not just look at the passing parade of prices; to get down to the serious business of investigating exactly how prices are arrived at and to have the ability to question them and obtain the documentation; and to get down to the job of ensuring that there is at least a watchdog with teeth to protect the position of Australian motorists now.

Today’s Australian reinforces what Labor has long maintained. It said:

Australia must seize the opportunity of a high world oil price to finally get serious about its long-term energy future.

It backs up everything my resources spokesman, the member for Batman, has been saying, and I quote the Australian article again:

Opposition resources spokesman Martin Ferguson has raised the issue of gas or coal to liquids as the best long-term answer to the current oil price shock, and he is correct.

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... the abundance of gas is the key to breaking our exposure to the increasing stranglehold of Middle East crude.

Given that the Prime Minister has seen all this and had months to deliberate on it—he has seen the consequences, in part because of the disastrous policies he has pursued in Iraq, of a rise in the price of oil emanating largely from the Middle East—I cannot for the life of me understand why he has not, in that period of time, got it into his noggin that we actually have a solution here. We are not asking that the Australian government break new ground in this area. Frankly, the technology here in relation to gas to liquid conversion already exists and is in operation in Qatar and Nigeria. It is simply a matter of getting the taxation regime right here and you will get it here. You do not have to invent anything else; it has already been invented. We can no longer afford to be complacent about either the supply or the cost of petrol. The Prime Minister must go further than the measures announced today.

Last year I released Labor’s Australian fuels blueprint. It sets a crucial goal to reduce our reliance on foreign oil and diversify the Australian fuels industry, because a more self-sufficient fuels sector will make Australia a stronger nation. Back then, talking about our dependence on Middle East oil, I have to say, was not fashionable, but after just 12 months of campaigning on the subject reducing our dependence on Middle East oil is now the dominant way of seeing Australia’s fuel problem. That is what I call effective opposition. We state the case, we state the problem and we identify it as a key strategic interest. In relation to the Australian economy and the Australian nation overall, we are mocked, ridiculed and ignored by the government and then gradually, slowly and without acknowledgment the government slopes and slouches towards our position.

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