Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

No amount of rhetoric or references to Gordon Ramsay, Chauncey Gardiner, Robin Hood or bubbles will conceal the fact that this opposition remains in denial. Eleven years of government did we have from this now opposition in denial about how to deal with fuel prices—and not only fuel prices; now we have analogies with other areas of social policy. Senator Bernardi referred to food costs and childcare costs but I have not yet heard anything of substance on this issue from any speaker taking note today. I sat back and I listened to: ‘Yes, we are dealing with OPEC,’ and I thought, ‘Great, we’ll hear a substantive response to the Prime Minister’s comments today in question time.’ And what have I heard? Nothing.

The closest we got was Senator Fifield referring to the opposition’s 5c cut in fuel tax—uncosted, as we all know, in the budget reply and it remains uncosted. On top of that, we have heard the suggestion from everyone else in the opposition about what it should or might be, ranging from a minimum of 5c, as Senator Hutchins pointed out, up to a 20c cut. So what is the opposition’s plan? I still have heard nothing. What I did hear today, though, when listening to the House of Representatives and the Prime Minister referring to OPEC and the Jeddah summit, was a plan that included some significant detail about supply and demand side initiatives that are being progressed.

Let me go to a few of the conference outcomes, because these have not been covered in the debate today. The conference outcomes included an agreement to work towards greater stability of global oil markets; a recognition of the need for more investment, both upstream and downstream, to ensure that the markets are supplied in a timely and adequate manner; a call to improve the transparency and regulation of financial markets; a commitment to improving the quality, completeness and timeliness of oil data submitted through the monthly Joint Oil Data Initiative to help improve market transparency and stability; and a commitment to providing assistance to alleviate the consequences of higher oil prices on the least developed countries.

What we are talking about here is a complex global problem. If I were someone in the Australian general public listening to this debate today, I would be appalled at the other side’s lack of understanding of the problem and its contribution on how to deal with it. Most Australians are aware of the Howard government’s record on fuel prices—they have been paying at the pump for many, many years—and they do not attribute to the Rudd government the state of play as it stands today. But what we can say, and what Mr Rudd said in the other place today quite clearly and quite effectively, is that we are now dealing with the problem. We have a suite of supply and demand side initiatives that take a long-term approach to these problems. These initiatives include improving energy efficiency on the demand side and dealing with inefficient extraction on the supply side. The Rudd Labor government is seeking to ensure in the longer term that Australians are not paying more at the pump than they need to.

Let us look at other areas of policy, as Senator Bernardi did, such as childcare costs and food costs. Let us look at the blatant hypocrisy that comes from the other side on these issues. I recall recently the shadow minister for ageing saying, ‘Yes, we’ll talk about increasing the age pension.’ I think that lasted one day. This opposition cannot get its act together in terms of its policies. It is offering nothing significant to people on age pensions, and the Australian public will understand that.

This opposition presided over unknown increases in the cost of childcare services. When we introduced legislation to deal with those issues, the shadow minister responsible for the policy area managed a few glib comments in his second reading contribution in the Senate, and that was all. But then he used it as an example in relation to fuel pricing. Well, I am sorry but a little more substance will be required of the opposition, whether it be on fuel prices, aged care policies or childcare costs. (Time expired)