Page 1932 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 16 June 1993
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I draw members' attention to page 37 of the report, which states, in summary, that because of their domination of the industry in the ACT the major oil companies have had no pressure on them to discount petrol prices in order to gain a share of the market. There has been no sustained action on the part of the major oil companies that has shown there to be a competitive market in the ACT and this has confirmed the Government's view that action must be taken in respect of the petrol retailing market in the ACT to encourage lower petrol prices.
As further support for the Government's position, there was, a couple of months ago, a brief flurry of activity in relation to petrol discounting in the ACT. The Government supports that type of activity and I make the point that, while seasonal factors may result in periods of discounting, in order to sustain that discounting it is necessary to encourage the strong independent petrol retailers into the market, as they can extract discounts from suppliers because of the strength of their position and pass those discounts on to the customers.
Some submissions also argued that compensation should be paid to existing service station owners on the basis that they paid high premiums for their sites in the past, due to government planning policies, and that implementation of new, less restrictive planning policies would devalue their premiums. It must be recognised that it is not only policy changes that affect the value of assets; other circumstances may also affect value. In this case, it is not in the public interest, nor is there any legal or moral obligation on the Government, to make such payments and, indeed, it is the Government's view that no such payments should be made as a result of a change in policy. Further, I am advised that previous policy changes in relation to service stations did not result in compensation payments either.
Mr Deputy Speaker, the proposed timeframe for implementing the recommendations is six months. However, this may be a target date only, depending on the cumulative progress of the recommendations as a scheme for making long-term changes to the ACT retail petrol industry and the possible necessity to effect planning variations and redirection of resources within government departments.
In relation to the Fair Trading (Fuel Prices) Bill 1992, which was introduced in the Assembly on 25 June 1992, I propose to proceed with that Bill. I believe that the legislation has the potential, even if only rarely used, to be an effective restraining influence on short-term price exploitation such as the notorious Easter 1991 price rises.
Mr Deputy Speaker, none of these measures recommended by the working group to create a more competitive environment in the ACT petrol market will automatically lower petrol prices. However, the Government believes that genuine competition is likely to bring down Canberra's petrol prices. The Government believes that, with the adoption of the recommendations of the Working Group on Petrol Prices, the present state of affairs in the ACT in relation to petrol will begin to alter and that a benefit resulting in cheaper petrol being available to the consumer will flow through as the recommended changes begin to have an effect on the industry. I present a copy of this statement, and I move:
That the Assembly takes note of the paper.
Debate (on motion by Mr Humphries) adjourned.
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