Page 145 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 23 February 1994
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Mr Berry: What you would want to entrench is your ideology.
MR MOORE: Mr Berry interjects that I would prefer to inject my ideology. The truth of the matter is that I believe that decisions on appointments should be non-partisan, so that no ideology dominates. Appointments should be made on merit rather than as a favour or reward. I think that the whole issue can be summed up by saying that this is a Bill about merit rather than mateship.
Debate (on motion by Mr Connolly) adjourned.
FAIR TRADING (FUEL PRICES) (AMENDMENT) BILL 1994
MR HUMPHRIES (10.56): Madam Speaker, I present the Fair Trading (Fuel Prices) (Amendment) Bill 1994.
Title read by Clerk.
MR HUMPHRIES: I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
This Bill amends the Fair Trading (Fuel Prices) Act 1993, a piece of legislation which in some key respects I would describe as a toothless tiger. What this Bill essentially does is provide for a high degree of consumer protection through a very important but often neglected part of the public education process - that is, through educating consumers about the nature of the price that they are paying for a particularly important product in our community, namely, fuel.
This legislation imposes on retailers of petrol and diesel fuels in Canberra a simple requirement that they display a notice indicating the break-up of the prices that people are paying at the bowser for fuel in the Territory. The format of the notice is set out in the Schedule attached to the Bill. It is a simple format. It contains, essentially, four main elements: Commonwealth Government charges and taxes, ACT Government charges and taxes, oil company charges, and the retailer's margin - the amount that the person actually selling the petrol is making on the sale. This makes service station customers aware of the taxation payment and the private profit payment that they are making when they pay for their petrol. The Schedule itself is of a reasonable size in the 12-point type. It would be about the size of an A4 page. That notice would be on or near a bowser, so people would be able to read it and see what the break-up of the price was.
After a change in the price of petrol has occurred, proprietors are given 24 hours in which to display accurately the information that should be on that form. The reason, of course, is that when fluctuations occur there needs to be a small lead-in time to ensure that service station operators have the opportunity of making sure that the information on those sheets is accurate. It is a very simple form, Mr Deputy Speaker. The information is readily available to service station proprietors from authorities and oil companies, and it is in a standard form. I anticipate, for example, that it will be possible for service station operators to have a form which has blank spaces which can be filled in, if necessary, when the information comes through, and which will be placed on the bowser.
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