Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

Everyone is coming out of the closet, Senator Fielding. In terms of the Canberra price, it is 169.9c. In fact, when I have been challenged to give the price—in this case, unleaded petrol in my local community—I have issued a counterchallenge to members of the opposition, who continue to demand these prices, which I do give to them. Write down your local petrol price, Senator Bernardi, on that bit of paper you are writing on now and let us see whether you know the price of unleaded petrol in your backyard.

Global crude oil prices have been rising strongly over recent years, putting pressure on domestic petrol prices and family budgets. The world benchmark, West Texas crude oil price, is now trading just over US$135 a barrel; that has more than doubled over the last two years. It is not just the last six months, Senator Minchin; it has more than doubled over the last two years. We do know that these increases have flowed on in the form of significant rises in the cost of petrol in Australia. The Labor government understands the pain that high petrol prices are inflicting on working families.

We know that increasing petrol prices are hurting Australian families. This, of course, is in addition to the burden of 12 straight interest rate rises. We do know that interest rate rises and increasing petrol prices hurt families and hit them hard. The government is taking action to deal with the impact of fuel prices on Australian families. Firstly, we need to understand the global nature of this challenge. It requires both a global and a domestic response.