Today in Parliament, Abigail contributed to a debate supporting the urgent Energy and Utilities Administration Amendment Bill 2026 to strengthen the government's powers to respond to the fuel security crisis, while calling out NSW Labor's inadequate cost-of-living response: freezing Opal fares and offering a token $100 off registration instead of free public transport and profit caps on fuel and groceries.
Abigail said:
On behalf of The Greens, I indicate that we support the Energy and Utilities Administration Amendment Bill 2026. I note on record that this bill is being presented to members for the first time tonight. We have not had the benefit of hearing the Minister's second reading speech, but we have fortunately been briefed extensively on the bill by her office, and I thank the Minister for that. This is not an ideal way to make laws. Ideally there would be time for the public and stakeholders to contribute, but this is a genuinely urgent bill. That is the reason why we support it in these genuinely urgent circumstances.
We are now at level 2 of the National Fuel Security Plan. New South Wales is not alone in taking steps to improve readiness for a fuel security response. I understand the New South Wales Government intends to exercise powers to implement bulk allocations or retail rationing, either under a declared Commonwealth emergency or independently. We hope we do not get to that. While the current powers under the Energy and Utilities Administration Act 1987 already give quite a lot of power to the Minister, we believe it is important to strengthen the provisions and promote more responsive compliance.
There are a couple of interesting bits of the bill that are worth commenting on. One of them is the ability to issue oral directions. That was one of the issues we discussed at length with the Minister's office, and we got comfortable with the idea that it was genuinely necessary to be able to pick up the phone in order to quickly act to secure fuel in an emergency scenario. I am also looking at the increase in penalties being imposed here compared with what is being proposed in other States and Territories. Again, I thank the Minister's office for providing us with some comparative information across States. We are comfortable with that aspect of the bill.
Fuel security is important given the state of various resources and the other means we have of getting around New South Wales. We all hope that we move towards a situation where we are not as reliant on oil coming out of the Middle East. Energy affordability is equally important. We are all feeling the effects of a war that we did not start and did not want. The Albanese Labor Government had both feet in supporting Trump and Netanyahu's illegal war on the Middle East. Yet again, billionaires, fossil fuel companies and weapons companies are laughing all the way to the profit-gouging banks, while the rest of us are left with steep and constant increases in the price of our everyday essentials.
It is worth saying that what we really need now is free public transport. That is not a panacea. It will not make everything easy, particularly for people in regional areas, but it will certainly help people in the cities. It is pretty extraordinary that instead of that we are getting a token $100 off vehicle registration. That is great. Everyone is happy to get $100. But it is nothing compared to the extra money that people are forking out for fuel right now. Opal fares are being frozen, not reduced, which seems incredibly out of touch from the Labor Government. I want free transport. The people of New South Wales want free transport. Other States have found a way to do that. It strikes me as quite strange that NSW Labor is being so stingy regarding such an obvious cost-of-living measure in a time of increased fuel prices.
We have all lived through enough crises like this to know that after this current war and the current crisis have subdued, the prices of fuel will stay higher than they were previously. They may come down a little bit, but they will not come down to what they were, because companies work out that they can charge higher amounts and people will pay it. That is the nature of the market. We could have a cap on fuel profits. I encourage the Labor Government to investigate ways to cap fuel profits and recoup some of those profits. I know that coal companies are having a great time at the moment charging higher prices for thermal coal.
A cap on profits on everyday items, like groceries, is also incredibly achievable. There is no reason why we cannot legislate for those things in the same way that we are legislating for fuel security in this bill. It just takes a bit of courage to stand up to unscrupulous corporations. It requires politicians to be in touch with the experience of the average household in this State. No-one is breathing a sigh of relief after today's budget. It is out of touch with what the average person in this State is feeling when it comes to the increase in prices, such as fuel. With those remarks, The Greens support the bill.
Read the debate in Hansard here.
23 June 2026