Page 2047 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 28 May 1991
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retail petrol prices. Although unquestionably these planning changes are soundly based and motivated by the right consumer and industry thoughts, their failure to affect the market may point to more deeply rooted causes inside the refinery gates.
Another longstanding issue, Mr Speaker, is the mentality of people outside the ACT treating Canberra as a country town. For too long petrol companies ignored the environmental rights of ACT residents and supplied Canberra with high lead content, country grade super petrol. While the petrol industry initially offered a gradual changeover to low lead petrol on the basis of there not being an environmental problem in Canberra, our Environment Protection Service has recently produced evidence to the contrary. Readings in Canberra were found to be comparable with industrial areas of Melbourne - I believe that one was Collingwood - and without heavy industry in Canberra there is no cause to blame, apart from petrol emissions. This problem is particularly severe during our autumn when wind velocities are low.
Consequently, as I am sure members are aware, the Minister for Finance and Urban Services, Craig Duby, and I called representatives from the Australian Institute of Petroleum to Canberra to give them an ultimatum to explain within seven days fundamental inconsistencies in the industry argument. Six days later the Institute announced that only city grade petrol would be supplied to Canberra by the end of this month, and appropriate action will be taken to ensure that the changeover occurs as agreed. This will be done by periodic examination of petrol samples by our Environment Protection Service. Mr Speaker, I am sure all members will agree that this was a high profile win for self-government, and the community should acknowledge it as such.
I now return to the pricing issue. Members will recall the components of ACT petrol prices, using ordinary unleaded petrol as an example, namely: The PSA sets a maximum endorsed wholesale price to which the ACT franchise fee of 6.53c per litre and freightage of 1.8c per litre are added, and then petrol retailers add their profit margin to produce a price to consumers at the pump.
To illustrate this in money terms, on 6 May most service stations in Canberra were paying what is known as the rack price of 58.1c per litre and selling petrol to consumers at 65.9c per litre, returning a margin of 6c per litre after allowing for freightage of 1.8c per litre. The margin to Canberra service stations, which have a comparatively high-volume low-competition environment in which to trade, at 6c per litre is among the highest in Australia. It compares unfavourably with other capital cities, such as Sydney at 1.82c per litre, Melbourne at 2.88c and Adelaide at 2.94c.
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