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Speaker 1: I think that here in the Northern Territory we are

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Speaker 1: going to be feeling the impact of these petrol price

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Speaker 1: rises well and truly across the board. I mean, even

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Speaker 1: as Louise has just pointed out, there's some of the

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Speaker 1: things that you might not have even thought of in

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Speaker 1: terms of, you know, the generators in some of those

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Speaker 1: remote communities. But then when you're talking about freight being

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Speaker 1: transported to regional Australia to us here in the territory

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Speaker 1: more remote areas as well, it's going to have a

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Speaker 1: big impact. And it's something that the Independent Senator Rex

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Speaker 1: Patrick has been speaking about for a little while now,

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Speaker 1: and he has called to cut the current fuel excise

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Speaker 1: in order to address the high cost of living in Australia.

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Speaker 1: He told Sky News Australia that Scott Morrison's put sixteen

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Speaker 1: billion dollars aside in an election war chest and he

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Speaker 1: feels that realistically we could be doing more to help

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Speaker 1: every Australian family and every Australian small business. He joins

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Speaker 1: me on the line right now, Good morning to your Senate.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Catie, good to have you on the show.

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Speaker 1: Senator. There is no doubt about it. I mean in

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Speaker 1: the territory. Yesterday I was getting ready to finish the show,

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Speaker 1: and before we wrapped up, we realized that the diesel

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Speaker 1: and unleaded prices had gone above two dollars for the

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Speaker 1: first time that I can ever remember.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, look, it's two dollars twenty and adelaide at

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Speaker 2: the moment, and it's predicted to go up to something

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Speaker 2: around the two fifty to two seventy dollars per per

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Speaker 2: to two dollars seventy per liter. Now, that is going

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Speaker 2: to hurt families, That is going to hurt businesses in

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Speaker 2: the wake of COVID. And there is a solution to this.

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Speaker 2: Every time you fill up your tank, forty four cents

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Speaker 2: of per liter goes into the pockets of Scott Morrison

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Speaker 2: and Josh Friedenberg. They can relieve families and small businesses

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Speaker 2: as immediately by harving that fuel excise. And that's what

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Speaker 2: should be done.

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Speaker 1: And Senator, you called for this happened earlier in the week.

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Speaker 1: It's been locked back, hasn't it.

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Speaker 2: Well. I actually called for it on the around about

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Speaker 2: the twenty second of February. I could see that we

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Speaker 2: were in a you know, that we were likely to

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Speaker 2: have a conflict in Ukraine that would drive the costs

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Speaker 2: up even further, and of course it's predicted that they

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Speaker 2: will go even higher. This is a non discretionary spind

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Speaker 2: for most families. You know, you have to go to work,

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Speaker 2: you have to go to school, you have to go

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Speaker 2: and get the groceries, and you may well have to

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Speaker 2: take someone to a doctor or to a hospital. You

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Speaker 2: can't get around this spend and it's crippling. At the

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Speaker 2: same time that we're seeing rent rises, we're seeing rises

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Speaker 2: in the cost of groceries. This is going to affect

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Speaker 2: inflation that may well drive up interest rates in circumstances

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Speaker 2: where we have wage stagnation right across Australia. This is

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Speaker 2: bad and the government needs to react to this, and

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Speaker 2: the government has rejected this despite the fact that they

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Speaker 2: have set aside as you indicated, a sixteen billion dollar

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Speaker 2: war chest going into the election to pork barrel. Now

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Speaker 2: that just everyone understands what that means, that taxpayers money

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Speaker 2: being given to marginal seats or select groups of people

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Speaker 2: to buy votes when we've got everyday Australian's suffering right

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Speaker 2: across the country and you.

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Speaker 1: Know, obviously it's an issue right around Australia. As you've

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Speaker 1: pointed out in South Australia right now, two dollars twenty

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Speaker 1: That is unbelievable.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 1: I suppose a difficulty for us here in the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory and other regional and remote areas of Australia as well,

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Speaker 1: is that it's not just the petrol price in terms

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Speaker 1: of going to fill your vehicle up, but it's your frace,

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Speaker 1: it's the generation of power in some of those different

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Speaker 1: remote communities. It's going to be a real kick in

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Speaker 1: the guts for so many Aussise.

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Speaker 2: It is, and that's why we have to reduce this

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Speaker 2: fuel size. We have a situation during COVID where more

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Speaker 2: than thirteen billion dollars of taxpayers money was provided to

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Speaker 2: companies who had an increase in revenue over the period

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Speaker 2: where COVID was at its height. And yet that was

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Speaker 2: us helping businesses that didn't need the money, and that

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Speaker 2: would seemed to be okay for Josh Frodenberg. Now we've

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Speaker 2: got regular families needing some help and the government's turning

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Speaker 2: their back on them. And I might point out that

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Speaker 2: Anthony albinis and in the surprises me, he is someone

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Speaker 2: who says that he supports the Battler has not basically

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Speaker 2: coming behind me and backed this call. Basically sitting on

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Speaker 2: the fence, doesn't want to upset any Apple Carts at

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Speaker 2: this point of view. And I think that's very sad

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Speaker 2: of labor who again they purport to be working for

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Speaker 2: the Batler, but are not coming out and supporting them

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Speaker 2: at this suport in time.

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Speaker 1: And you know what, someone's got to stand up for

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Speaker 1: the Batler. And it does sound as though you're doing

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Speaker 1: a good job of it, Senator, and I hope that,

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Speaker 1: you know, I hope that some common sense prevails here.

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Speaker 1: We're just catching up with the Transport Association and they

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Speaker 1: were telling us that, you know, for some of these

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Speaker 1: some of these truckies, some of our freight companies that

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Speaker 1: realistically that you know, the more that these prices go up,

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Speaker 1: it is going to then be passed on to the consumer,

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Speaker 1: it's going to have to be in some way. So

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Speaker 1: we're going to be getting hit in every angle.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, look, this is this is actually going to

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Speaker 2: get worse. There's no question about this. And I just

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Speaker 2: remind your listeners that we are a couple of months

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Speaker 2: away from a federal election. It's at this point in

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Speaker 2: time that they have the most power that they have

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Speaker 2: in a democracy. After the election, what will happen is

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Speaker 2: politicians will just turn their backs on constituents for the

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Speaker 2: next couple of years. So people need to be making

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Speaker 2: some noise about this. I'm glad that the media have

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Speaker 2: started paying a real tention to this, but people have

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Speaker 2: got to be picking up their phones, letting their federal

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Speaker 2: members know that this is unacceptable, that they need relief,

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Speaker 2: and ultimately, taxpayers dollars are their dollars.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, one hundred percent. Well, Senator rex Patrick, I really

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Speaker 1: appreciate your time this morning and it's short notice. Thank

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Speaker 1: you very much for having a chat with me.

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Speaker 2: You're welcome, Katie, thank you.