Page 3040 - Week 10 - Thursday, 15 September 1994
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The one final point I would like to make, Mr Deputy Speaker, is that we drew attention to the need for a slight change to our signs within Canberra. (Extension of time granted) Recommendation 7.32 states:
The committee recommends that the Government promptly adjust existing policies affecting the location and type of signs on main roads to permit appropriate branded signs (conforming to current guidelines) directing motorists to nearby service stations.
What I perceive that to mean is that where we see our small signs with a petrol pump indicating that there is a petrol pump - signs of about that size usually within other signage - then they just carry a logo of the same size of the particular brand of fuel. That is particularly important because people do buy according to brand; and different people, particularly from out of town, carry cards for certain stations and so on. But the one thing that we are not recommending - and I think it needs to be made very clear - is big, splashy signs that are not part and parcel of the planning of Canberra. I just wanted to make sure that that was clear on this issue.
Mr Connolly: Even for the socialist petrol stations.
MR MOORE: Even for the socialist petrol stations. Unfortunately, the planning issues are of a higher order than will be gained by those. I was delighted to have the opportunity to serve on that committee and I appreciate the care that all members have taken with this issue.
MRS CARNELL (Leader of the Opposition) (4.37): Mr Deputy Speaker, as with everybody else who has spoken, I think the first thing that needs to be said is that every government or every Minister has every right to make a political decision. Mr Connolly was very open and quite forthright in his statements that the decision he made to bring Burmah into the ACT market was a political decision. He did so to bring down the price of petrol in the ACT.
The committee did not in any way question that statement. It was perfectly obvious that that was the truth. Mr Connolly said, "We need cheaper petrol in the ACT and this is how I am going to do it". It was also made very clear to the committee that the introduction of Burmah into the market was not a recommendation of the working party on petrol prices. The recommendations of that report were not adhered to in terms of Burmah. Burmah was totally out of left field; it just seemed like a good idea. In fact, the committee, at page 53 in paragraph 7.14 - this is a conclusion - says:
In relation to the Burmah Agreement, the committee is compelled to observe that it was a hasty, inadequately documented process which achieved both the Government's aim and that of Burmah: in the case of the Government, to have an independent operating in Canberra (with some sort of commitment -
"some sort" being the obvious words here -
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