Page 3483 - Week 11 - Thursday, 14 October 1993
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
It had nothing to do with social justice; it had nothing to do with the petrol prices. In fact, Mr Connolly said in his speech, "The amount of tax that the ACT Government charges does not affect the price of petrol". They are his words. If that is true, Mr Connolly, explain to me why the price of petrol at the pump has gone up in the last couple of weeks.
Mr Connolly: By a heck of a lot more than our tax, which has not yet cut in.
MR KAINE: It went up because you put one-and-a-quarter cents a litre tax on it. That is the only reason it has gone up.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order! Your time has expired, Mr Kaine.
MR STEVENSON (11.47): Canberrans can trust politicians to put up taxes, fines, fees, rates and charges and to call them various things. Over half the money that is invested in petrol to get us from place to place goes to taxes. Mr Humphries said, "It is time for motorists to fight back". As you cannot fit a Pajero through the front door, I think it is fair enough that this Assembly stand up and fight on their behalf.
Mr Kaine: I bet you can.
MR STEVENSON: I tried it. You cannot. It was a quote befitting of anything that Lewis Carroll ever wrote for Alice in Wonderland when the Chief Minister said, "ACT tax has nothing to do with the price of petrol". That is bizarre. She followed it with something even more interesting when she said, "The Government is committed to low petrol prices", having just put them up. The Attorney-General and the Chief Minister said, "That had nothing to do with increased petrol charges", but the petrol prices went up after it. In New South Wales they went down. Last weekend and earlier this week you could buy petrol in New South Wales at less than 60c. It was 59.8c. In Canberra, at the same time, it was a steady 75.9c.
Mr Humphries says that he intends to introduce a requirement that service stations display signs showing how much governments are ripping off the petrol buyer.
Mrs Carnell: What a good idea!
MR STEVENSON: I would suggest that it is a good idea not to make it mandatory. I have been suggesting to relevant people and to individual service stations for years and years that they do that. I said, "Listen, everybody comes in to invest in some petrol and you should have a sign right there showing that". But there is a better way of doing it. The pumps should be altered. As you put the petrol into the car there should be two or three meters. One meter, showing the major amount, should be for the government tax. The third one should show the few cents that goes to the small businessman who runs the service station, who is open at all hours of the day and night, seven days a week in many cases. The Chief Minister also said that we need to be consistent with New South Wales. Members in this house, when introducing new legislation, always say that we need to be consistent with other States, except when they want to do something that no-one has done. Then they say that we need to lead the way, that we need to show direction. What nonsense!
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .