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it had fallen in the case of Canberra to less than 3c a litre. They were the average retail margins. Those are the matters which I think we should be looking at. Does Mr Connolly seriously suggest that we should somehow bear responsibility for the rises in prices in Sydney? Is that what he is saying? Obviously not.

The other interesting comparison, Mr Speaker - I will table these figures in a minute - is the comparison between the price of petrol being pumped by Burmah in Canberra and the price of petrol being pumped by Shell, a fairly random comparison perhaps, but still between two fairly significant players in the ACT marketplace - at least that is what we were led to believe by Mr Connolly previously. On 1 February Shell was pumping its petrol at just under 71c a litre; Burmah was pumping its at just under 72c a litre. Here is the market leader at work. Since that time, on every day that has been measured, bar one, Shell’s and Burmah's prices were exactly the same. What happened to the company that was supposed to be the price trendsetter and that Mr Connolly introduced into the marketplace to create competition?

Mr Connolly: You abandoned competition.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Connolly says that we have abandoned competition. The question I have to ask him is this: How have we abandoned competition? What have we done?

Mr Connolly: By just bowing out, Gary. You are no longer doing what we were doing.

MR HUMPHRIES: By just bowing out. How have we bowed out? What have we done that is different from what you were doing?

Mr Connolly: You have done nothing, absolutely nothing.

MR HUMPHRIES: On the contrary, Mr Speaker, this legislation is proof that we have not done nothing. The second matter is that we have not changed one iota of the previous Government's policy, except to abandon the letting of a site in Phillip, which was not selling anyway. Nobody expressed any interest in that site when you advertised it at the end of last year. Mr Speaker, nothing has changed. There is no indication of any policy change on the part of this Government.

Are you suggesting, by this sort of snide comment that the pressure is off, that we have somehow gone to the oil companies and said, “Hey, guys, you can put the prices up now. We are really in favour of higher petrol prices in Canberra. Give us a few more cents a litre for the price of petrol.”? I must say that the comments of major oil companies in reply to our request for proof of their intention to pass on lower petrol prices certainly do not support that contention. The fact is, Mr Speaker, that oil companies in this country are less than happy with this Government, and I must say that I, for one, am quite proud that that is the case.

Mr Berry: So is everybody else.

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