Page 1056 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 20 April 1994
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I am proud of this, because the ACT is the first education system in Australia to have achieved this, to have gone so far. It is the result of a great deal of hard work by the curriculum people, by teachers. The fact that it has not had a great deal of promotion in the community should not detract from the very considerable importance of the achievements.
Petrol Station Sites
MR WESTENDE: Madam Speaker, my question is directed to the Minister for consumer affairs. Is it true that the Government or the Minister is in receipt of a letter from Burmah Fuels Australia requesting or demanding the release of other sites in the ACT to retail petrol? If so, will the Minister please table that letter in the Assembly?
MR CONNOLLY: Madam Speaker, I am certainly not aware of any such letters demanding release of sites. Burmah certainly indicated to me informally, when I met with senior Burmah officials on the day of the launch, that they would be interested in bidding, were we to release additional sites. We have, of course, indicated that the Government, in the second stage of its strategy, would look at releasing additional sites; but that will be through a restricted bid type of auction where Burmah and other independents may have the opportunity to bid. I am unaware of any letter requesting or demanding, and there is certainly no agreement that would give them any right to think that their request or demand would carry any greater weight than a request or, absurdly, a demand from any other independent retailer.
While discussing the issue of petrol, I want to make sure that I have not misled the house in relation to Mrs Carnell's earlier question. I said that the Motor Trades Association said that about 2c a litre was the appropriate cost of renting a petrol station site. In fact, I shall quote from page 9 of the November 1992 report of the ACT Government Working Group on Petrol Prices. The Motor Trades Association said that 2.4c per litre was the appropriate cost for rental, royalty, electricity, cleaning, licences, stores, et cetera. That was in November 1992.
Given the low inflation outcome of the Federal Labor Government, we have to add a little bit to that, but not very much. So we are talking about perhaps 0.4c to allow for inflation and 0.6c to cover royalty payments for the use of brand names and the like. Page 60 of this report indicates that, for the petrol station sites they looked at, the cost of electricity ranged between $3,000 and $30,000, so it looks to me that it costs roughly $10,000 a year for electricity. Cleaning costs, the cost of various licences - Mr Westende, I am answering your question - and the cost of stores must be added to the cost. So they may have been generous in saying that they felt that the ballpark figure was 2c. The 1.8c from our independent valuer, when compared with the MTA's claim of 2.4c for not just rental but also royalty, electricity, cleaning, licences, stores, et cetera - I am not quite sure what "et cetera" means - indicates that we are pretty much in the ballpark, whereas McCann's specially commissioned report saying 7c is wildly irreconcilable with the Motor Trades Association's own submission to the ACT Government Working Group on Petrol Prices published in November 1992, at page 9, which is available for your perusal.
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