Page 1869 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 14 June 1994
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If it closes - and I will no doubt be blamed - I will say that it has previously been closed by Shell, and I will say that the Motor Trades Association in 1992 indicated that they expected 12 service stations to close. I will also say that one of the unique factors about the ACT is that when a petrol station owned by Shell, or BP, or Ampol or Mobil, and leased out to operators closes in the ACT, unlike the rest of Australia where that outlet is often put on the market and independent operators have the opportunity, at a fair market price, to buy it and to sell their independent petrol, within hours of the closing they spike the tanks and rip them out. The oil majors deliberately make certain that independents do not get access to those sites. If anyone doubts that, look at what happened in Dickson. When the Shell outlet closed they built the mega outlet across the road and the tanks were up within days. A couple of years ago Shell were deciding what to do about that outlet and eventually it did reopen.
Madam Speaker, what I say to all of the operators in Canberra is that they need to put pressure on their oil suppliers and say, "You should treat us no better but at least no worse than you treat your outlets in Sydney or Melbourne". I find it unconscionable that Shell was able to say on Monday or Tuesday of last week, "We make a decision to supply our outlets in Sydney at a discount". I noted Premier Kennett's comments in recent weeks about what the oil industry is doing in Victoria. He is about as critical as I am in relation to the petroleum industry. The only way we will have a competitive market in Canberra is when we force the oil majors to provide that same level of discounting as occurs elsewhere.
Mr De Domenico: By sending local businesses broke.
MR CONNOLLY: We are not sending local businesses broke, Mr De Domenico, because the industry said two years ago that it would be closing up to 12 sites.
Mr De Domenico: Rubbish! Yes, you are. Go and talk to them.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr De Domenico, order!
MR CONNOLLY: Strangely enough, Mr De Domenico, Burmah employs people to pump their petrol, and I reckon that when we open the additional three independent outlets they will employ people to pump their petrol too, unless it is a totally employee-free petrol station, which I find hard to believe. The bottom line remains, Madam Speaker, that this Government has intervened in the petrol market. We have been commended for doing that by the Australian Consumers Association, and even the Canberra Times editorial on Saturday had to say that we did the right thing by bringing in Burmah and we did the right thing by introducing the other three sites.
I am happy to go out there and to explain to the public what I have done on this. I want you, Mr De Domenico, to go out there and to explain to the public why you consistently stand shoulder to shoulder with the oil industry to oppose every measure that we introduce to bring down petrol prices. Mr De Domenico, I tell you this: Small business has the choice of going to some of the small sites and paying 74c a litre for petrol; or, better still, we will open a government petrol station site, we will post the price of petrol at 77c a litre, and we will say to small business, "Gee, guys, would you like to go and buy your petrol at 77c a litre or buy it at 69.9c?". I know what they will do.
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