Page 3630 - Week 12 - Thursday, 13 October 1994
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way of reducing petrol prices. On this issue, second only to VITAB, the population of Canberra was extremely critical of the Government's performance. Of those who were asked whether they approved or disapproved of the Government's handling of petrol prices, a whopping 65 per cent of respondents said that they disapproved of this Government's handling of petrol prices.
Mr Connolly: I think they disapprove of high petrol prices, Gary.
MR HUMPHRIES: No. The Government's spin doctors have tried to say, "No; they were voting about petrol prices, not about Government policy". Of course, that was not the question that was asked. The question was, "Do you approve of Government policy and Government handling of petrol prices?". It was not petrol prices per se, but Government handling of those petrol prices.
Mrs Grassby: They want it cheaper, Gary. They still think it is too dear.
MR HUMPHRIES: Mrs Grassby, 65 per cent of people disapprove of your Government's handling of that matter. Only 15 per cent of respondents approve of it. That seems to me to indicate that people do not have much regard for your handling of these matters.
Madam Speaker, Mr Connolly continues to cast aspersions on the particular way in which this notice of disallowance has been drafted. I can tell the Assembly that this disallowance motion, as was the one last year, was drafted with the assistance of the secretariat of the Assembly, who have done, as they always do, a fine job in drafting a properly worded disallowance motion. Indeed, I understand that advice was sought from Mr Connolly's own Parliamentary Counsel's Office, to ensure that this motion did not, as was suggested by the Government, disallow all subordinate laws prior to this matter being debated today, but disallowed only the one before the Assembly today. That was the advice that his own Parliamentary Counsel's Office gave. During the week, we were attacked for casting aspersions on the work of public servants. I assume, therefore, that Mr Connolly will live by his own standards and will apologise to those public servants for having suggested that they made a mistake, because this motion is entirely in accordance with their advice.
Madam Speaker, the fact is that the process of admitting new players to this market has been utterly disgraceful. I understand that expressions of interest were called for on Saturday, 1 October. The Government was so disorganised that the relevant documents they needed to actually lodge those expressions of interest were not available until the evening of Thursday, 6 October. Page 3 of the document states that no submission will be accepted after 30 September 1994 - one week before the documents that were necessary for those expressions became available. It is now also clear that the conditions applying ensure that only one applicant is intended to succeed, namely, Burmah Fuels.
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