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MR MOORE: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. The Minister referred to looking at previous action that had been taken. I presume that he was referring to Mr Connolly. I wonder what you will do, Minister, to ensure that you outshine the previous Consumer Affairs Minister's performance in terms of ensuring lower petrol prices in the ACT.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I do not know that I will go to the point of putting little rosettes on the bottom of my press releases indicating that I have won. Sooner or later I expect to see a sort of a crown hovering above the letterhead on Mr Connolly's press releases. I do not intend to be pursuing any particular issue for that kind of gain; I am looking at pursuing this issue in order to protect consumers in the ACT through guaranteeing a genuinely competitive market and taking other steps, which this Government views as reasonable, to increase the likelihood that prices will stay low and be lower, if possible. An obvious measure among those, of course, is the issue of government franchise fees on petrol sales in the ACT. As I have said many times before, and I say again, that is a major contributor to the cost of petrol. Both ACT and Commonwealth charges contribute very significantly to the cost of petrol. Mr Connolly does not seem to understand that. But I think members should be aware that, when one goes to the petrol pump and pumps petrol into one's car, more than half of the total amount in dollars that one is putting into one's car goes in Commonwealth and Territory taxes. That is an issue that this Government will be very keen to pursue.

The question of refusing to permit other operators to compete in the marketplace is another issue that we will be examining. If necessary, we will explore the possibility of bringing forward legislation to do that. Members should also be aware that the moves initiated by the previous Government to permit so-called independent operators to operate in the ACT are moves that were well in train at the time that this Government took office. We indicated at that stage, and I repeat now, that we are not in the business of breaking legally binding contracts. As far as I am concerned, there were legally effective contracts for leases offered to Gull Petroleum from Western Australia to provide outlets at Belconnen and Tuggeranong - - -

Mr Connolly: Signed and sealed.

MR HUMPHRIES: Signed and sealed, as Mr Connolly points out. As a result, this Government will honour those arrangements and will not stand in the path of Gull Petroleum providing petrol or selling petrol from those sites.

Mr Berry: Or cannot, you mean.

MR HUMPHRIES: I think that Mr Berry would be surprised at how difficult the Government could be if it set its mind to do that. Perhaps he would not be surprised. We certainly could make life very difficult, but we are not going to.

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