Senator CANAVAN (Queensland—Nationals Whip in the Senate) (15:21): Standing orders should be suspended for this matter, because Australians are very worried right now about our fuel security. I credit Senator McDonald for bringing this issue forward, because it gives us the opportunity here to explain to the Australian people what is being done to help them. It is a little disappointing to me that the government won't take this opportunity to do that. If they were taking action and if they were able to provide reassurance to the Australian people, you'd think they'd welcome this motion so that they could explain in detail to the Australian people exactly what they are doing. But as we've seen in question time and just now, we have a minister here in this chamber, with some responsibility on this issue, who continues to deflect from the real issues and to just throw the most hysterical rants about the other side of politics, and all these conspiracy theories, and right-wing actors—who are the ones, apparently, causing the anxiety in the Australian public. No. The reason the Australian people are anxious about their energy and fuel security is that this government has no credibility as to their statements about energy and climate policy. This government said that they'd cut electricity bills by $275 for Australians. They didn't do it. This government said that they would lower gas prices, when they hauled us all here before Christmas to impose the most onerous regulatory regime we've ever seen in this country. That didn't happen. And so, because this government hasn't been able to abide by its own promises, which it has made, the Australian people are understandably a little sceptical now about any statement the government makes. It would be better if the government could simply take a calm and reassuring approach to this issue, instead of resorting to hysteria as the minister has done today and through this week in the Senate. In the Middle East conflict about 20 years ago, there was a character that popped up, that many of us remember, who became named 'Baghdad Bob', who would do these press conferences and say, 'Everything's fine in Baghdad; everything's under control,' and meanwhile, US tanks were rolling past behind him. Well, now we don't have Baghdad Bob; this time we have Ayatollah Ayres! Ayatollah Ayres is in here saying, 'Everything is fine! Don't worry! There's no problem! Petrol prices might be too high— The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Canavan— Senator CANAVAN: Oh, he's a bit sensitive! The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Canavan, I was going to rule. Senator Ayres interjecting— The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Canavan, please refer to people by their correct titles. And I would remind you that we do need to be relevant to the matter, which is the suspension of standing orders. Senator CANAVAN: Fair cop. Well, we need to be relevant here, because I would like the minister to just tone it down. We just have this opportunity to support this motion. He'll be able to speak again on the substantive matter. He could just tone down the hysteria a bit and take people through some real-world data—some information, not invective—to reassure them that the government has this under control. The issue that doesn't seem to come up or is not being explained here by the government at all is exactly what these stockpiles are and exactly what our requirements are. Our requirements are actually not to hold a minimum amount of supply needs. The international agreement we have signed is to have a minimum amount of net imports. The reason we are more vulnerable today than we were 20 or 30 years ago is that our net imports have surged as our production of oil has dropped. At the start of this century, 25 years ago, we produced enough raw petroleum for 96 per cent of our needs. That is now below 50 per cent, because the Bass Strait has dried up. That's why we are more vulnerable. It's not the refineries that the Labor Party continues to distract about. It happened a few years ago. It's not these arbitrary amounts of fuel we have in a particular barrel in a particular location. The reason we are more vulnerable is that we are producing less oil, and the reason we are producing less oil is that we have put up massive barriers to the development of oil and gas in this country. We have one state, Victoria, that has a ban on fracking across its whole state. They have some of the most prospective oil resources in that state because the Bass Strait, where we used to get it from, extends under the land area of Victoria as well. We know there are liquid fuels in the area, but because they ban fracking, they are untouchable. They are not going to be commercial without fracking. We've banned fracking across the whole area of the Canning Basin in north-western Australia, which is another long-term prospective oil resource for this country. It's not hard to work out that, if we don't drill for oil and gas, we will become vulnerable to the Strait of Hormuz and the conflicts that happen around the world. Look at what the US has done. The US, under different administrations, has taken a different approach. They have drilled; they have fracked. They are now the world's biggest and largest oil producer in the world. Under the Biden administration, the United States produced more oil in one year than any country ever has in history. Meanwhile, we lock up our country on some futile naive mission to change the temperature of the globe, and we make all Australians angry, vulnerable, frustrated and anxious that they now have to pay more than $2 a litre at the pump.