Senator STERLE (Western Australia) (15:09): I did want to talk a little bit about the Voice, but I can't listen to Senator Chandler read from a script and make statements that have absolutely no body to them and let her get away unchallenged. This is for the people up there in the gallery too. Senator Chandler unintelligently and, quite frankly, uneducatedly referred to the so-called war between Russia and Ukraine as if it were just some passing thing. I don't know what that lot over there do during the off times when they're not here. Quite frankly, I don't care. I know what I do. I talk to truck drivers around this nation day in, day out. I talk to small, medium and large trucking companies day in, day out. I talk to companies which have 30,000 employees and I talk to owner-drivers. The war between Russia and Ukraine, Senator Chandler, has put up the cost of fuel. I don't know quite what all the machinations are, but about six months before the war—when you mob were still in government—diesel was sitting at around $1.50 a litre. How do I know that? Because I spent a lot of time fuelling trucks because I drive them for charity. I come from a trucking background. I'm not like most of you who went through university and say, 'In the playground I had a premonition one day that I wanted to be a senator or a member of parliament.' I actually came here with dirt under my fingernails. And I continue in the great cause of driving road trains from Perth to Kununurra and places in-between to raise money for charity. I know the cost of diesel, Senator Chandler, from pulling my mate's truck up at a bowser in Port Hedland or in Kununurra and looking at the price, and it's now $2.50 a litre in the Kimberley. Yet you make a throwaway line about the so-called war between Russia and Ukraine so-called pushing up the cost. Senator Chandler, you might not know, but it's pushing up the cost of transport because truckies have to actually cover their costs when they deliver the goods that you and me and the rest of us in this building rely upon. Senator Chandler interjecting— Senator STERLE: Here we go again, Senator Chandler. I'm sorry that you came through university with the premonition that one day you might be the Leader of the Opposition or the Leader of the Liberal Party in the Senate. I come from the real world. Someone has to pay for those costs. Senator Chandler: What are you doing about it, Glenn? Senator STERLE: I don't sit over there, with a big pearl necklace on, talking about how unfair it is and how hard done by— The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Hughes? Senator Hughes: I raise a point of order. That was a direct imputation that had an alternative meaning, and I would ask Senator Sterle to withdraw. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: No, I don't think it did. Senator Sterle, could you please withdraw that? Senator STERLE: Absolutely. For you, Deputy President, always. As I said, these trucking companies have to pay for the cost of fuel. When people go to shopping centres or hairdressers or shoe shops or wherever they may go, every single thing on those shelves has been on the back of a truck—not once, not twice, not three times. The clothes you're wearing have probably been on the back of a truck seven or eight times. Think about that. Think about where the cotton came from. Think about the fertiliser, the machinery and the fuel that's had to go out to the farms. How did it get there for you, Senator Hughes? It didn't just get flown over in a big, magic air balloon. It was actually on the back of the truck. When the cotton seeds are cultivated or the cotton is tumbled—guess what?—it ends up on the back of a truck and it goes off to market or wherever it may go. It may then leave the market to go to a warehouse or a factory on another truck. Then, once it's spun into a shirt or a coat or a pair of socks or whatever you may purchase—oh, my goodness me—it goes on a truck to a distribution centre of Coles or Woolworths or Aldi or wherever it may be. Guess what? It then gets shipped from the distribution centre on the back of a truck, not on a pigeon or a balloon. I hope you can understand that. It then goes to the shopping centre where you've driven and purchased it. There have probably been about eight truck trips. Senator Chandler interjecting— Senator STERLE: You can shake your head as much as you like. The truth is that you're arrogant and ignorant about the way this nation operates and you're arrogant and ignorant about our supply chains. You have no idea. In the universities of New South Wales and Hobart, or wherever you cut your teeth, they don't talk about real-world issues. It's all gossip and innuendo and who's going to do over who to get a frontbench position. Sorry, people, I'm still in the real world. You make a throwaway comment like that, Senator Chandler, so I hope I've helped explain to you that the cost of living affects our trucking industry. Someone has to pay for it, unfortunately. Let's talk about Woolworths and Coles. Woolworths and Coles are having a ball. They're getting their money back. Don't worry about the cost. They put up their prices, and it's hitting all of us in our back pockets. These are the same companies, with the help of you lot over there, who want to suppress the closing the loopholes legislation, which will lead to the opportunity for the Australian truck industry to actually get paid what it costs for them to do business. I hope I helped you out. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator Sterle. Senator Cadell.