Page 3622 - Week 12 - Thursday, 13 October 1994
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this Government supports small business; but you have to put your money where your mouth is. What Mr Connolly has done is to destroy small business. His actions belie the Chief Minister's words. Mr Connolly argues that the community is the winner. He confines his arguments solely to the price of petrol that they put in their petrol tanks. If Mr Connolly were to look beyond his own ego - he had to prove that he got the price of petrol down, having committed himself to it, but he did it at any cost - he would recognise that the flow-on effects of his decision will have major impacts contrary to the community interest, which will far outweigh the Connolly vote-getting immediate benefit.
Those losses to the community will flow from a loss of access to local service stations. A lot of people are soon going to find that they do not have a local service station. They will lose the amenity of local shopping facilities because, history demonstrates that when the service station goes, the shopping centre goes. There will be a loss of public revenues due to lower property values and, hence, lower rate collections. There will be a loss of jobs generated by the service station and there will be a loss of investment, due to a lack of confidence that capital invested will be maintained and not lost. Mr Connolly and Ms Follett simply do not understand, and they have stuffed it up.
Debate interrupted.
DISTINGUISHED VISITOR
MADAM TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: (Mrs Grassby): I draw members' attention to the presence in the gallery of Mr Santo Santoro, MLA, the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party in Queensland.
BUSINESS FRANCHISE (TOBACCO AND PETROLEUM PRODUCTS) ACT -
DETERMINATION OF FEES
Motion for Disallowance
[COGNATE PAPER:
PUBLIC ACCOUNTS - STANDING COMMITTEE - REPORT ON
INQUIRY INTO PETROL SUPPLY ARRANGEMENTS]
Debate resumed.
MS SZUTY (12.11): Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I want to address the disallowance motion, the Public Accounts Committee's report on its review of petrol supply arrangements, and the Government's response to the report which has been tabled here this morning. I will deal briefly with the disallowance motion. I note that in 1993 Mr Humphries proposed a similar disallowance motion in respect of the determination of fees under the Business Franchise (Tobacco and Petroleum Products) Act. The important point to remember is that these fees are a component of petrol prices and should be considered as such. I acknowledge the argument about the consumer price index that the Chief Minister put to the Assembly this morning. She mentioned the importance of linking this fee with the one in New South Wales. I do not have any argument with that.
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