Page 231 - Week 01 - Thursday, 14 February 2019
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Certainly in addition to this inquiry—and the Chief Minister has flagged this—under various pieces of legislation there are powers available to the government to consider regulating prices. Those powers sit within an act for which I am responsible, and that is where I have had discussions with the Chief Minister.
The referral to the ICRC to undertake a study of the petrol market in the ACT and provide quite technical and detailed advice will complement the work of the committee. And that will give us a basis on which we might consider the use of those legislative powers. I think that they are there and are available to us. They were powers that were put in place a long time ago and we need to reflect on the modern petrol market as it exists and whether those laws are still suitable.
But, given the experience we are having, there may well be a role for government to intervene in a way that would perhaps not be considered normal these days. This might be a piece of legislation for another time. We could have a very modern application. And we will consider that as we go along.
Mr Coe touched on the issue of fuel boards. I will not speak to that, as we are about to debate the legislation and hopefully pass it this morning. I will make some further remarks when we get to that debate—at the rate the clock is going, possibly this afternoon. But we will come back to that matter later.
Ms Le Couteur and I, in discussions, have been reflecting on the fact that of course there is a challenge around the greenhouse gas emissions that result from the use of petrol in motor vehicles. I think that one of the solutions in the medium term will be a greater uptake of electric vehicles. Those who own them currently talk about the fact that they can power their car extremely cheaply using electricity.
The challenge at the moment is that there are not many vehicles available in Australia and the ones that are available are quite expensive. This is not an immediate solution for most Canberra households. But certainly, with new vehicles arriving in Australia in just the last few months at much lower price points, this in the medium term is going to be something that will not only address significant environmental issues but also provide households with options where they can assess their own transport needs and think about what the better option is for them. I think there will be some medium-term solutions there as well. But, for the purposes of today, we are pleased to support the establishment of this inquiry.
MR BARR (Kurrajong—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Social Inclusion and Equality, Minister for Tourism and Special Events and Minister for Trade, Industry and Investment) (11.30), in reply: I thank members for their support of this reference. I think it is an important piece of work and something that hundreds of thousands of Canberrans will have an abiding interest in.
It is, of course, par for the course in this place that people will seek to say someone has only done something in response to something else. I would simply draw to members’ attention the various news articles going back to 2014—in fact, seven days after I became Chief Minister. It was one of the first issues that I raised at that point in time. So it has been a consistent campaign we have been pursuing.
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