Page 3616 - Week 12 - Thursday, 13 October 1994
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Mr Humphries: The retailers, not the industry.
MR CONNOLLY: The retailers are part of the industry, Mr Humphries. She is going to give the people who kept the prices up $9m of ratepayers' money. So, that is another $9m worth of nurses, doctors, teachers and policemen that we have to find. With this Opposition, it is all shoot-from-the-hip stuff. They are making these promises. Nobody believes you, Mr Humphries, because you and Mr Kaine doubled the tax in the first place. The tax in the ACT is precisely the same as in New South Wales, as the Chief Minister indicated.
Mr Humphries: Not according to the opinion poll on petrol, Terry.
MR CONNOLLY: You take comfort in that, Mr Humphries; good on you! If we had a difference - if the ACT Government were charging ACT consumers a higher tax than New South Wales - the Opposition would have a very valid point, and we would be very vulnerable. The fact is that we are not. The fact is that it is precisely the same. As the Chief Minister indicated, for a period of about two years, we had held the tax in the ACT and let the tax in New South Wales increase. So, we were actually having a lower rate of tax. What impact did that have on petrol prices? The impact was zilch and zip. They went up, as the Chief Minister indicated. While Queanbeyan was normally the same as the ACT, being part of the same closed market at the time, residents of Queanbeyan have also benefited from the ACT Government's price competition. I trust that Peter Cochran will be thanking me in his election campaign. There were periods when, despite our tax being lower, our price of petrol was higher than Queanbeyan's. That is not unusual.
The Opposition squawked about the Industry Commission and claimed, quite falsely, that the Industry Commission had said that Burmah's entry had had an impact of only about 1c. That is what Mr Humphries was saying. "About 3c" was the Industry Commission's considered view. When you go to their detailed analysis, you find that they say 3.09c. So, never mind a 300 per cent error; it is just Liberal figuring. If you go to that Industry Commission report and look at the section on taxes and charges, you find fascinating proof of what the Chief Minister said in her remarks. What the Chief Minister said was that it is proven that the level of State taxes has very little to do with the retail price. The retail price is driven by competition, and the competitive pressure existent in a market at a given point of time, rather than a State tax.
Let us look at State taxes. At that time, ours was the same as that of New South Wales, 7.04c; Victoria's was 8.43c; South Australia's was 9.11c; and Western Australia's was 5.67c.
Mr Humphries: And Queensland?
MR CONNOLLY: Queensland's was zero. Queensland has always had a zero tax. So, let us look at those States that have the tax. You are, no doubt, promising to have a zero tax. That is $26m worth of nurses, doctors and teachers. Let us look at that. We would assume that, because South Australia has the highest rate of tax, at 9.11c, they would have the most expensive petrol; and we would assume that Western Australia, with a tax of 5.67c, the lowest of those States, would have the cheapest petrol.
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