- Home
- Hansard & Papers
- Legislative Assembly
- 6 September 2001
Fuel Prices
Printing Tips |
Print selected text
| Full Day Hansard Transcript
« Prior Item |
Item 8 of 49
| Next Item »
Page: 16493
Debate resumed from 5 April.
Mr FRASER (Coffs Harbour) [11.31 p.m.]: I support the motion moved by the honourable member for Murrumbidgee. The cost of fuel is a real problem for people in rural and regional New South Wales in terms of on-farm costs and the cost to the community. It is a matter of concern also for tourists on the North Coast. A zoning system is in place whereby fuel prices are reduced as one gets closer to the Queensland border. The system attempts to address the anomaly between low-cost Queensland fuel prices and New South Wales fuel prices. My electorate of Coffs Harbour is in a zone in which—and far be it from me to suggest collusion by the oil companies—fuel prices are the dearest. In the past couple of years the Minister for Fair Trading has travelled up and down the coast, making a lot of noise about how the State Government will do something about fuel prices. In that time he has refused to acknowledge that because of the overseas barrel price of oil, because the countries that supply the oil are probably drip-feeding us so the price stays high, and because of the low exchange rate of the Australian dollar, fuel prices have increased.
On numerous occasions the Minister and his Country Labor colleagues have tried to lay the blame on the GST. On one occasion when the Australian dollar took a dive and the world barrel price of oil went up, consequently the price of fuel in Coffs Harbour rose to more than $1, to almost $1.10. The Government said that the price increased by 10 per cent because of the GST. That was a lie and has been proved to be a lie. When prices have come down there is still a great anomaly in the price of fuel paid by country people and Sydney people. Currently people in Coffs Harbour pay 92¢ a litre. About a week ago the price of fuel in Newcastle was 86¢, in Sydney it was down to about 80¢. It has been suggested that the difference is because of transport costs. I am afraid I cannot accept that. Regularly the State Government blames the Federal Government for the high price of fuel in country areas. The motion states:
… the reported comments by the Minister for Agriculture in the Griffith Area News prior to the 1995 election that: "Country petrol prices would be brought down by a reactivated New South Wales Prices Commission if a Labor Government was elected" and "the Fahey Government had not utilised the Commission to regulate petrol prices and instead wiped its hands of it by passing it off as a Federal matter."
What has the current Minister for Agriculture done? Has he reactivated the commission? No. Have petrol prices come down under a Carr Labor Government? No. In fact, they have gone up. Can we believe the Minister? No. In 1995 he gave a guarantee; but it was merely one of a number of fibs spread by Labor to win government. When Labor came into office he did nothing. He sat on his hands. He is awaiting an opportunity—as all Ministers of the Carr Labor Government do—to blame the Federal Government. Labor members who represent country electorates—they are now called Country Labor members—have done absolutely nothing to put pressure on the Minister for Agriculture or the Premier to take action which would see fuel prices reduced.
The Opposition knows that the State collects a levy and that that levy is not fully homologated for road spending. We challenge Country Labor members to urge the Minister for Roads and the Treasurer to put all that money back into roads. They are certainly not doing that at the moment. They hide behind the levy and try to blame the Federal Government for the price of fuel. Again this week the Government did not deliver. Labor members, including the honourable member for Bathurst, who whinges and whines regularly, do nothing; they do not make representations to the State Government to reduce fuel prices.
Mr MARTIN (Bathurst) [11.36 p.m.]: I support the comments of the Minister for Fair Trading on this motion and I debunk the motion moved by the honourable member for Murrumbidgee. Once again we have the typical National Party response: rhetoric, full stop! Everyone knows that petrol prices are a Federal responsibility. In recent years there have been a number of inquiries to that end. The motion contains a false assertion. In fact, in 1995 the Government did fulfil its election commitment. The Government indicated that the New South Wales prices commission would investigate complaints of excessive retail petrol pricing. A comprehensive inquiry conducted by Professor Tom Parry produced a report that, in a nutshell, stated:
Given the Commonwealth's involvement in regulating the petroleum industry, and in view of the industry re-structuring forum operating under the aegis of Senator Chris Schacht, it is appropriate that the recommendations in this Report that are accepted by the State Government be referred to the Commonwealth … it is widely agreed by the major parties involved in the Inquiry that the Commonwealth is the appropriate jurisdiction.
We have seen what has happened with excises in recent years. The High Court has ruled that excise is a Federal responsibility. The honourable member for Coffs Harbour and the honourable member for Murrumbidgee have asserted that the Government has done nothing about petrol prices. Since I became a member of this House in 1999, the Minister for Fair Trading and Country Labor members have actively raised this issue and have even travelled to Melbourne to discuss our concerns with Allan Fels and other members of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
We all agree that basically this is a Commonwealth responsibility. I regularly commute from my electorate to Sydney, and I can state with accuracy the amounts being charged for petrol at different stages along the route from Bathurst to Sydney. A week ago the prices ranged from 79.7¢ at Woodford in the Blue Mountains to 90¢ in Bathurst, although this week in Bathurst there are places where petrol prices are in the high 80s. The thrust of the argument on this side of the House has been that the disparity between fuel prices in the city and the country is not justified. It all comes back to the pricing mechanism. It is very difficult to ascertain from petrol companies in detail how the system works. However, freight costs are not the major problem. The freight cost differential between Sydney and Bathurst for a litre of fuel would be a fraction of a dollar.
The real problem, in my opinion, is that the people in country New South Wales, and indeed those in country Australia, are being forced to pay for the heavy discounting laws of the capital cities. That is simply the strategy of the oil companies. The Federal Government has the regulatory power to do something about that. John Howard and John Anderson need to do something there. We saw the debacle of the GST, which certainly had an impact on petrol prices. We also saw the retreat after the massive public campaign to do away with the indexation part of the excise—one of the numerous backflips we have seen from the Federal Government on this issue.
The real issue is that we need to continue to address the matter. We will do that from this side of the House, as we have done continually over the past 2½ years, and the Minister for Fair Trading in particular has led the debate on that issue. We are extremely restricted in what we can do. But the pressure should go back where it belongs, that is, to the Federal Government, which rakes something like $12 million out of the petrol industry, either in excises or out of the pockets of motorists. Let us see the Federal Government back up the rhetoric that we hear from the National Party. The National Party should ask John Anderson, Warren Truss and company to put that money back into the pockets of motorists, instead of going on with the hypocrisy it has been going on with in this debate.
Mr PICCOLI (Murrumbidgee) [11.41 a.m.], in reply: This motion is obviously about fuel prices, but, equally important, it is also about broken promises. The promise made by the current Minister for Agriculture was a significant promise made in my electorate in an attempt to curry favour with the electorate. We just heard the honourable member for Bathurst say, in effect—
Mr Debnam: He whinged and whined.
Mr PICCOLI: He whinged and whined, and said that everyone knows it is a matter for the Federal Government. However, obviously the Minister for Agriculture did not know that, because in 1995 he said that country petrol prices would be brought down by a reactivated New South Wales Prices Commission if a Labor Government were elected. The Minister also said that the New South Wales Fahey Government had not utilised the commission to regulate petrol prices, but instead wiped its hands of it by passing it off as a Federal matter.
What the Minister for Agriculture accused the Fahey Government of at that time is exactly what the honourable member for Bathurst and Minister Watkins have just accused the current Federal Government of doing. It is hypocrisy in the extreme. It is also another example of a broken promise—one of a number of wonderful promises the Labor Party made, particularly prior to the 1995 election. Other glaring examples of broken promises include the removal of the tolls on the expressways in western Sydney. Rather than removing the tolls, the Government increased them. Another example—the honourable member for Vaucluse may be able to assist me—was the halving of hospital lists. I note that the honourable member for North Shore is in the Chamber. She may be able to tell me the exact words of the Premier and the former Minister for Health when they said that if hospital waiting lists were not halved—
Mr Campbell: Point of order: I have not examined the standing orders, but I am sure the honourable member is contravening at least one of them, and I have absolute confidence that you will draw my attention to it. The House is supposed to be hearing a contribution to this debate from the honourable member for Murrumbidgee, not a contribution to this debate by prompt from either the honourable member for Vaucluse or the honourable member for North Shore. I ask you to direct the honourable member for Murrumbidgee to address his motion in his own words, rather than words from the mouths of his colleagues.
Mr ACTING-SPEAKER (Mr Lynch): Order! I suggest that in future the honourable member for Murrumbidgee should prepare his contribution before he begins to speak rather than rely on assistance from those on the Opposition back bench.
Mr PICCOLI: Let me suggest that the last thing we need is a contribution from the honourable member for Keira. The promise was made that if hospital waiting lists were not halved within the first 12 months of the Carr Government's term of office, both the Premier and the Deputy Premier would resign. We know that that promise was not kept, that in fact there was a blow-out in hospital waiting lists, and today we see the New South Wales health system in a state of chaos. It is a litany of broken promises that will come back to haunt the Government, and the promise with regard to fuel prices is just another example of the hypocrisy of the Carr Government.
Whilst members, including the honourable member for Bathurst, continue to wash their hands of the problem and lay blame on everyone else—which seems to be the common thread amongst Government members at present, whether we are talking about hospitals, police, or any other matter that the Government is having difficulty with—the people of New South Wales can see through that, and I am sure that the people of Auburn will see through it this Saturday when voting in the by-election. The Carr Government stands condemned for its complete and utter hypocrisy.
Question—That the amendment be agreed to—put.
The House divided.
Ayes, 47
Ms Allan
Mr Amery
Ms Andrews
Mr Aquilina
Mr Ashton
Mr Barr
Mr Bartlett
Ms Beamer
Mr Black
Mr Brown
Miss Burton
Mr Campbell
Mr Collier
Mr Crittenden
Mr Debus
Mr Face
Mr Gaudry | Mr Greene
Mrs Grusovin
Mr Hickey
Mr Hunter
Mr Iemma
Mrs Lo Po'
Mr Lynch
Mr Markham
Mr Martin
Mr McManus
Ms Meagher
Ms Megarrity
Mr Mills
Ms Moore
Mr Moss
Mr Newell
Ms Nori | Mr Orkopoulos
Mr E. T. Page
Dr Refshauge
Mr Scully
Mr W. D. Smith
Mr Tripodi
Mr Watkins
Mr West
Mr Whelan
Mr Woods
Mr Yeadon
Tellers,
Mr Anderson
Mr Thompson |
Noes, 36
Mr Armstrong
Mr Brogden
Mrs Chikarovski
Mr Collins
Mr Debnam
Mr George
Mr Glachan
Mr Hartcher
Mr Hazzard
Ms Hodgkinson
Mr Humpherson
Dr Kernohan
Mr Kerr | Mr Maguire
Mr McGrane
Mr Merton
Mr O'Doherty
Mr O'Farrell
Mr Oakeshott
Mr D. L. Page
Mr Piccoli
Mr Richardson
Mr Rozzoli
Ms Seaton
Mrs Skinner
Mr Slack-Smith | Mr Souris
Mr Stoner
Mr Tink
Mr Torbay
Mr J. H. Turner
Mr R. W. Turner
Mr Webb
Mr Windsor
Tellers,
Mr Fraser
Mr R. H. L. Smith |
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Amendment agreed to.
Question—That the motion as amended be agreed to—put.
The House divided.
Ayes, 46
Ms Allan
Mr Amery
Ms Andrews
Mr Aquilina
Mr Ashton
Mr Barr
Mr Bartlett
Ms Beamer
Mr Black
Mr Brown
Miss Burton
Mr Campbell
Mr Collier
Mr Crittenden
Mr Debus
Mr Face | Mr Gaudry
Mr Greene
Mrs Grusovin
Mr Hickey
Mr Hunter
Mr Iemma
Mrs Lo Po'
Mr Lynch
Mr Markham
Mr Martin
Mr McManus
Ms Meagher
Ms Megarrity
Mr Mills
Ms Moore
Mr Moss | Mr Newell
Ms Nori
Mr Orkopoulos
Mr E. T. Page
Dr Refshauge
Mr W. D. Smith
Mr Tripodi
Mr Watkins
Mr West
Mr Whelan
Mr Woods
Mr Yeadon
Tellers,
Mr Anderson
Mr Thompson |
Noes, 36
Mr Armstrong
Mr Brogden
Mrs Chikarovski
Mr Collins
Mr Debnam
Mr George
Mr Glachan
Mr Hartcher
Mr Hazzard
Ms Hodgkinson
Mr Humpherson
Dr Kernohan
Mr Kerr | Mr Maguire
Mr McGrane
Mr Merton
Mr O'Doherty
Mr O'Farrell
Mr Oakeshott
Mr D. L. Page
Mr Piccoli
Mr Richardson
Mr Rozzoli
Ms Seaton
Mrs Skinner
Mr Slack-Smith | Mr Souris
Mr Stoner
Mr Tink
Mr Torbay
Mr J. H. Turner
Mr R. W. Turner
Mr Webb
Mr Windsor
Tellers,
Mr Fraser
Mr R. H. L. Smith |
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Motion as amended agreed to.
Last modified 05/12/2007 16:32:40 : Update this page