Page 789 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 13 April 1994
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MR DE DOMENICO: I ask a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. Because I lost count of the number of noes Mr Connolly used, I ask him again: Have other sites been promised on the same basis? Secondly, Mr Connolly, as you have such a comprehensive briefing there, what is the estimated cost of this highly subsidised arrangement?
MR CONNOLLY: The last question is a non sequitur. There is no estimated cost; it is a net benefit. The first question asked whether they have been promised other sites on a similar basis. Absolutely not. They have not been promised additional sites, although I expect - - -
Mrs Carnell: But you said that there would be six before the end of the year. You said it.
MR CONNOLLY: Again, settle, Mrs Carnell. All things come to those who wait. They have not been promised additional sites; but I expect them to bid for additional sites, and it certainly will not be on the same basis. We made it very clear that additional sites - and the Government's position paper that was tabled in this Assembly said that there would be up to six - will be made available on an open bidding process, which will exclude oil majors or people who deal with oil majors. Burmah or Matilda or Southern Cross will be able to bid, but not the existing organisations which, in Mr Humphries's words last year in this place, form a cartel.
Mrs Carnell: Burmah is an oil major.
MR CONNOLLY: I hear the interjection, "But Burmah is a large company". Indeed they are. We have never made a secret of that fact, as we made clear at the press conference announcing their entry into the Canberra market. The problem in the past has been that when small independents have tried to crack the Canberra market, crack what Mr Humphries described as a cartel, they have not lasted very long. For one reason or another over the last decade, they got squeezed out. We were very keen, for the first crack in the wall, to get in somebody who was big enough not to be pushed out, and Burmah are indeed a very big company. They are better known as Castrol. They operate something like 120 retail petrol outlets across south-eastern Australia, and the information we gathered, in a very careful look at the dynamics of the petrol market across south-eastern Australia, is that in every market in which they are present they tend to operate as a price leader or one of the price leaders.
I would not want to see a situation where Burmah was the only independent in the ACT. I would like to see them bidding for some of the other sites and other independents bidding for some of the other sites. It was very important for us to get in a large organisation as price discounter No. 1 because in the past, where small people have set up to try to crack the Canberra market, they have failed. If we had not acted, or if the people of the ACT had been so unfortunate as to have the ACT Liberals in office for the past six months, Canberra motorists would still be paying 75c to 77c per litre for petrol.
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