Page 3479 - Week 11 - Thursday, 14 October 1993
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Mrs Carnell: Is this relevant, Mr Lamont?
MR CONNOLLY: It is very relevant, Mrs Carnell. You are locking yourself into opposing the Government strategy on getting independents into this market. That could be one of the biggest political mistakes you dills have made. You make plenty of them, so I will not stick to that statement.
The price competition that is operating in the Sydney market, which has been led by the presence of independents, is producing petrol to the motorists at 10c less than the retailers are paying in the ACT. The oil companies are treating the Canberra motorists as suckers. They are treating the Canberra retailers as suckers. They are consistently making Canberra retailers pay the maximum permitted wholesale price, and everywhere else in major cities they are discounting heavily. The average price in Brisbane is 64c a litre. In Hobart there are, one would assume, significantly higher freight costs because it has to go into a ship and be carted down to Tassie. In Hobart they are paying 68c. In Adelaide it is 73c. The price of petrol in the ACT is consistently the highest price in a capital city.
"What about regional markets?", you might say. We have seen recently, on the south coast around Nowra, the presence of an independent marketing chain operating down there. That has had a dramatic effect on prices, and how is that? "You are going to send the retailers broke", says Mr De Domenico, "so you should not bring in independents". We should not bring in independents; is that right?
Mrs Carnell: No; we should have independents, on a level playing field.
Mr De Domenico: No; you listen carefully. I disagree with the way you are going to do it.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr De Domenico, order! Mr Connolly, please address your remarks to me.
MR CONNOLLY: Indeed. In fact, I was pointing my finger, but not at you. I was gesticulating and it was in your direction. I was addressing the Chair, Madam Speaker.
When you get an independent into a market the oil companies have consistently shown that they will adjust their wholesale prices to compete, and that is what we will see in the ACT. If we were charging a higher taxation regime than surrounding New South Wales we would be subject to fair criticism. I would accept that. For some two years this Government deliberately kept the franchise tax in the ACT lower than that in surrounding New South Wales because we had a vain hope that, by holding that tax lower, we might have a beneficial impact on prices in the ACT. Yet consistently, for the last two years, we have had higher prices in Canberra than in New South Wales - not only the normal 10c margin between here and Sydney, but often higher prices than in Queanbeyan, just across the border, where they were paying higher taxes.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .