Page 3614 - Week 12 - Thursday, 13 October 1994
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So, the Government will be opposing the motion. We do so, I believe, for a very good reason, and we do so in the knowledge that the action as a government we have taken to engender competition in the petrol market in the Territory has had the real result of reducing petrol prices to ACT motorists.
Mr Humphries: By 1c a litre.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General and Minister for Health) (11.40): Madam Speaker, I hope, as I so often do, that the Liberal Party will some day actually get up and apologise for misleading the house. They never do. Mr Humphries continues to say that the Industry Commission says that Burmah impacted on the market by only 1c or 2c a litre, and then he interjects and says, "By 1c a litre". On page 186 of the Industry Commission's final report of July 1994 it is stated - and I will read this very slowly:
The Commission's analysis has found that Burmah's entry seems to be associated with about 3 cents of the fall ...
Mr Humphries: "About".
MR CONNOLLY: Yes, "about". Mea culpa. I am sorry; let us be precise. Let us turn to the specific analysis at Appendix F, page 13, of the Industry Commission report. It goes through a very complex computer modelling exercise to get there. It says "about 3c". So, yes, let us be precise. Let us not say "3c"; let us say "about 3c". At page 13 it is stated:
Simulations suggested that the entry of Burmah leads to a projected reduction of 3.09 cents per litre ...
You continue to come into this place and, at question time, ask these sly, grimy little questions, suggesting that I mislead the Assembly. You are always oiling your way up to the Independents, saying, "Let us do the Government over this. Let us have a censure motion. Let us have a no-confidence motion". Day after day, week after week, you come in here, barefaced, and make these assertions. You talk about the Industry Commission. You talk about a reduction of only 1c. You talk about the Burmah entry. There it is, in black and white. I read it to you very slowly so that you would understand - being Liberals - the statement where it said "about 3c". Then all you could say was, "Yes, only 'about'. It says 'about 3c'", suggesting again that somehow I am misleading the Assembly. You say, "It is, in fact, less than 3c. Connolly is at it again". There it is - it says "3.09c".
The fact is, Madam Speaker, as everybody knows and as the Industry Commission report would show you, at the moment in Canberra petrol is at a two-year historic low price because this Government was prepared to take on some of the most powerful vested interest groups in this town, acting in the public interest, as a Labor government has always done, not kowtowing to and looking after interest groups. We took them on, and we succeeded. I really would urge the Liberal Party to read the Industry Commission's final report, because it contains a lot of material that would be of interest to them.
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