Page 1866 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 14 June 1994
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MR CONNOLLY: No; you asked part of the question, but you are going to get the full answer. You should learn about the oil industry, and the public should learn about the continued support that this Liberal Party gives to the cartel in this community. "Cartel", I should say, is a word introduced into this debate by Mr Humphries some six to 12 months ago, rather than by me.
Madam Speaker, what I want the oil companies to do is to provide to Canberra retailers the same level of price support that they provide to Sydney retailers. The fact that the difference between the retail price and the market wholesale price can be only a fraction of a cent is immaterial to the debate. Regularly, in the Sydney market, the retail price is, in fact, below the market wholesale price. What happens is that the oil companies provide price support by supplying petroleum to their outlets at a discount of up to 5c on the market wholesale price. That is what had been happening in the ACT market until Tuesday morning of last week. Shell announced that they were withdrawing that discounting. I objected very strenuously, and I am pleased to see that we have a level of discounting back in the market in the ACT.
MRS CARNELL: I have a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. Does the Attorney-General accept that the vast percentage of that discounting is happening at the expense of small business operators? Most importantly, I again ask: Does he believe that it is possible to run a service station with a retail margin of 0.28c per litre?
MR CONNOLLY: Madam Speaker, the fact is that up until last Tuesday we were having a level of price support of between 1c and 2c from all oil companies. In some cases, I believe, it may have been higher. We can certainly prove price support of between 1c and 2c. I can produce charts, and I will tomorrow, which show the average retail margin in this town and show how it has come down from a very major margin way above anywhere else in Australia to an average margin that is comparable with other cities. Madam Speaker, again, the Liberal Party constantly stands shoulder to shoulder with the oil majors in denying Canberra consumers access to competitively priced petrol. Mrs Carnell will piously say, "Yes, I am opposed to high petrol prices", but will oppose everything that this Government does to force prices down.
Madam Speaker, I will also produce to Mrs Carnell tomorrow the Canberra Times article of October 1992 in which the Motor Trades Association said that they expected over the coming few years to see 12 small petrol stations close in Canberra. It is significant that that appeared in the Canberra Times in 1992, because that was before the Government had announced its intention to bring independents into this market.
Mrs Carnell: So you are not sending them broke?
MR CONNOLLY: What I am saying, Mrs Carnell, while you prattle on, saying that I am closing petrol stations, is that the Motor Trades Association, well before the intervention of independents was made public, were saying that up to 12 petrol stations would be closing in the ACT. I know that, much to your chagrin, they have not.
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