Page 3750 - Week 12 - Thursday, 21 October 1993
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their fuel in New South Wales?". Madam Speaker, Ms Szuty has referred to the letter of the Commissioner of State Taxes, J.W. Purcell, which has been circulated around the chamber. The document was not given to me directly. It was passed on second-hand, but I take it that - - -
Mr Cornwell: Why was that?
MR HUMPHRIES: Apparently I was not welcome at the briefing on this subject this morning.
Ms Follett: You did not ask for a briefing.
MR HUMPHRIES: I was invited to the briefing, and I am sorry that I was not welcome when I clearly expressed to the Chief Minister a desire to come to it.
Ms Follett: You did not.
MR HUMPHRIES: Madam Speaker, I indicate for the record that I did say to the Chief Minister this morning that I was looking forward to the meeting in her office at 9.30 this morning. The Chief Minister looked at me strangely and said, "I do not know what you are talking about". Subsequently a phone call was made to an Independent member of the Assembly indicating that I was not welcome at this meeting. The Chief Minister denies it. Has it happened or has it not happened? I do not know. The Chief Minister perhaps has not been told, but I was told that I was not welcome at a meeting about this subject this morning. Madam Speaker, that is what occurred.
Madam Speaker, Mr Purcell's letter - and perhaps I will table it in a moment - deals with the situation of a person who obtains an off-road diesel fuel exemption permit and who then buys fuel from a New South Wales supplier for use in the ACT. The commissioner indicates that the action to be taken by the commissioner in New South Wales will be to use the powers available under the Act and withdraw the permit. This action will be taken regardless of whether the misuse was detected by New South Wales or ACT compliance officers. First of all, Madam Speaker, it is quite clear, notwithstanding what members of the Government said on Tuesday night, that it is perfectly possible for someone who lives in the ACT to obtain a New South Wales permit.
Ms Follett: It will not do them any good, though.
MR HUMPHRIES: That was denied on Tuesday night by members of your Government, Chief Minister. We have got it clear now that it is possible to live in the ACT and obtain a New South Wales permit. But the commissioner refers to misuses. They are not actually defined, but it appears that those misuses include buying a product in New South Wales with a New South Wales permit and then using the product in the ACT. Of course, the fundamental question that has to be asked about this is exactly how such an administrative prohibition on use in the ACT of a product bought in New South Wales could possibly be enforced.
Take the Chief Minister's example today. If you fill up a tanker with diesel fuel and then drive it across the border into the ACT and start filling up off-road vehicles in the ACT, I suppose you could be followed across the border or you could have some people monitoring your activities, and you might well be caught out doing that. But, Madam Speaker, I suspect that a great deal of the diesel fuel consumption is not of that nature. A lot of the diesel fuel consumption is of the
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