Question Time at Parliament House, Canberra

E&OE TRANSCRIPT 
QUESTION TIME
PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA  
THURSDAY, 12 MARCH 2026

TRISH COOK, MEMBER FOR BULLWINKEL: My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. What actions is the Albanese Labor Government taking to support Australian farmers to continue producing food and fibre during the conflict in the Middle East?

JULIE COLLINS, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: Thanks Mr Speaker, and I do want to thank our Member for Bullwinkel. And I know that the farmers and producers in her electorate, like those right across the country, are working day and night to ensure that we continue to get the fibre and the food that we need here in Australia and indeed right across the globe. Mr Speaker, as we do know, fuel and fertiliser are critical for our farmers and the fuel is also important, of course, to keep our fishers fishing as well. And as I said in here yesterday, we do know the conflict in the Middle East is causing disruptions. And we've been hearing directly from industry, from our farmers, from our producers and from our fishers about some of the challenges that they're facing right now, particularly in rural and regional Australia. We know that fuel supplies continue to arrive in this country, but we also know that we need to continue to work to support our industry with these challenges. Following our roundtable earlier in this week, Mr Speaker, both the ACCC and the Australian Institute of Petroleum are working with suppliers to address some of the bottlenecks, and to make sure that our regional communities are getting the fuel they need. And we just heard from the Minister for Energy about the additional action that he has taken to ensure more fuel for our regional economies. And as the Australian Institute of Petroleum said yesterday and I do quote, ‘ensuring fuel supply to every part of Australia is vitally important to every town, to every community and to every business.’ And the President of the National Farmers' Federation, Hamish McIntyre, who said and I quote, ‘we're all working together now to make sure there's a fair and even distribution.’ Mr Speaker, our Government has also announced that we're doubling the penalties for false and misleading conduct and cartel behaviour, and the ACCC will ramp up fuel price monitoring even further. And as we've heard, we've acted to have the National Coordination Mechanism to respond even further. So we have better coordination, better cooperation, more scrutiny and more surveillance. And Fertiliser Australia were also part of this week's roundtable, Mr Speaker, because of course, we do know that fertiliser is critical. And in the same way that industry is working with the ACCC to supply fuel to the regions, Minister Ayres and I are working with industry and the ACCC on similar arrangements for fertiliser supply. As I've said, while much of the fertiliser required for the upcoming season is already in the country or on the water, we do continue to closely monitor this situation and will keep listening and working with farmers and industry to ensure the supply that is available. Australians expect all of us in this place, Mr Speaker, and everyone along the supply chains to continue to act in our nation's best interests. And I implore those opposite and those in the supply chains to take this seriously. The conflict in the Middle East is not a commercial opportunity nor a political one, and Australians do expect all of us to continue to act in the national interest.