Page 147 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 23 February 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
For a mid-range car with a 50-litre tank, it would cost about $34.70 to fill the tank. To break that price up, about $17 of that $34.70 goes in Commonwealth taxes and $3.47 goes to the ACT Government, so $20.37 of a $34.70 tank of petrol goes in taxes. Of course, Mr Deputy Speaker, this is not about just government generated rises in petrol prices.
Mr Connolly: It is about government generated falls in petrol prices. That is what we have seen in Canberra.
MR HUMPHRIES: It is about retailer generated rises as well and producer generated rises in petrol prices - or, indeed, as Mr Connolly points out, falls in petrol prices as well. They will be reflected very accurately on this sheet. We have not seen too many falls lately, particularly in government charges. It is nice to know that we have been pushing down the petrol price through certain government initiatives in the ACT; but unfortunately the price of petrol is still, in many respects, rising because of Federal and ACT Government increases in charges. Of course, in the recent Federal budget there was a 3c a litre rise in the price of petrol and a further 0.5c a litre rise was generated by the most recent ACT budget.
This legislation will give information to those who buy petrol. There is nothing wrong with keeping the consumer informed, I believe. I was disturbed by telephone calls to my office from service station owners who complained about the fact that consumers would tend to take out new tax increases, specifically the tax increases arising out of the recent budget decisions, on retailers rather than on other people. This particular measure ensures that that level of responsibility is properly sheeted home. The information that retailers would need is readily available through on-line computer systems, and I think that there would be no problem in making sure that the information was up to date and accurate.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I think retailers would welcome this measure. I think even Burmah Oil, a friend of Mr Connolly's, would realise that it would give people who use their product a chance to see that their margins are lower than other margins in the ACT. That would be a competitive edge for those people. They would enjoy being able to offer that advantage. Consumers could see what percentage of the total petrol price their local retailers and, indeed, their local government are actually getting. That is also a valuable process in education. Whatever use is made of this information, it is clearly vital, Mr Deputy Speaker, that people have ample and accurate knowledge of what they are paying for. That is the important thing. I think it is hard to construct any argument at all which says that people should not have the right to see this information in an up-to-date and accurate form.
Mr Connolly: Retailers who want to display it can display it now.
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Connolly points out that people have the right to put that information up at the present time. If you yourself are responsible for a price rise, you are not likely to want to put that information up, are you? Retailers are occasionally responsible for price rises when their margins increase, which I do not think has happened very much lately. Nonetheless, when that occurs, the interest of those parties in advertising their own responsibility for that increase is not going to be very great. That is why, Mr Deputy Speaker, we need to have some accurate information.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .