Page 3609 - Week 12 - Thursday, 13 October 1994
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Mr Connolly: But the gap is narrowing as a result of this Labor Government.
MR HUMPHRIES: Maybe it is narrowing; but the fact is that they are higher, and the reason they are higher is the reason identified by Mr Connolly's own working group on petrol prices, namely, Government planning policies over a long period of time. Government in the ACT - not just this Government, but government collectively - has been responsible for higher petrol prices. Your own report says that. Is it not, therefore, also government's primary responsibility to do something about lowering those petrol prices?
Mr Connolly: And we have, very successfully.
MR HUMPHRIES: No. Your policy has not been to have the Government itself take the initiative to act to reduce petrol prices; rather, it has been to act as a catalyst to force retailers, who are the victims of the Government's own policy, to lower petrol prices. I draw attention to the report of the Public Accounts Committee's review of petrol supply arrangements, where it said:
... the committee is concerned about the evidence put to it that the impact of the Government's policy has fallen predominantly upon local small business people rather than upon the oil majors whose lack of competitive activity so frustrated the Attorney-General.
It made recommendations, accordingly, dealing with that obvious inequity in the Government's policy. Of course, this Government - which never apologises, despite demanding that others do so - has not had the decency to acknowledge that its policies have fallen very heavily on the small businesses of this town, particularly those involved in retailing petrol. In fact, because Government has itself caused those higher petrol prices through a long-term policy, it ought to be on the Government's shoulders to forgo some of the very large amounts of income it has earned on petrol in this Territory by reducing its own petrol tax regime to bring it closer to what people in New South Wales are paying.
Bear in mind that every petrol station site that was initially released in this Territory produced handsome premiums for ACT governments and their predecessors - many millions of dollars, in some cases. Those millions of dollars have gone into government coffers. Is it too much to ask that it might forgo $600,000 a year in acknowledgment of the fact that the Government has been, far and away, the biggest contributor to high petrol prices in this city? Reducing the tax burden on Canberra motorists would see the price of petrol lowered in a way which is fair for motorists and fair for service station operators. As I have indicated, my party would go further than this mere reduction. It would reduce petrol prices by 3c over a three-year period of a Liberal government. This is a commitment which we make now and which we will stand by. On this subject, we have been consistent.
Mr Connolly: Pigs might fly!
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