Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

It is interesting that there is a level of ridicule about the future of manufacturing in Australia on the part of those opposite. Those on this side of the House stand for the future of Australian motor vehicle manufacturing; those opposite would simply like to kiss it goodbye. And then we have opposition from those opposite to the government’s plan to act internationally in partnership with the G8 and with other oil-consuming countries, including at the conference which is being convened this coming weekend by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Minister for Resources and Energy will be representing the Australian government at the Jeddah energy meeting. On the matters to be addressed at that meeting, these will go to the question of addressing foreign investment restrictions; working with OPEC countries and encouraging investment in additional spare production capacity; improving oil market data transparency; considering refining and other options for increasing middle distillate output in diesel, jet fuel and kerosene; and working with developing countries and the International Energy Agency to address the difficult issue of fuel subsidies and associated budget, balance of trade and inflation pressures. These are responsible matters to be considered in the context of responsible policy.

Given their 12 years in office, when many of the problems currently being experienced by motorists in this country were well and truly emerging—remember, oil and petrol prices were up by one-third last year—those opposite rather than being in permanent negative mode should instead adopt a more positive approach. Our argument is that what we need to do on the question of oil and petrol prices is have a range of short-, medium- and long-term measures. That is the responsible, long-term approach. I commend the forthcoming participation by the energy minister in that conference. We look forward to it, together with other international measures, assisting with the overall challenges which the global economy—every economy in the world—now faces with pressures on the global price of oil. When UK motorists today are paying something like $2.35 a litre, those in France are paying $2.95 a litre, we have protests and riots across Europe and we have protests also across our own East Asian hemisphere, this underlines the global dimensions of the problem. This government is fully participating in global responses to the problem and at the same time participating in national responses consistent with the overall challenge of dealing with the long-term price of oil and its impact on working families.

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