Page 3419 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 17 September 2019
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My sincere thanks go to my colleagues on this committee, Mr Parton and Mr Wall. It was a very collegiate committee; we worked together, I think, very productively as we tossed quite complex themes and ideas back and forth.
Finally, my thanks go to the ACT community for their engagement with this inquiry, and the media for its attention to such an important issue. Having so many people involved and engaged throughout has meant we have considered the widest amount of evidence available to us. I believe it has helped us to produce a comprehensive and considered report. I commend the report to the Assembly.
MR PARTON (Brindabella) (10.18): What a journey this particular inquiry has been. I note that, as I stand today, petrol is cheaper in Canberra than it is in Sydney, by about 12c, which must mean that we have done our job. Of course, it does not mean that we have done our job. Earlier Ms Cheyne described the lack of price cycles here in the ACT, but we do not hear anyone complaining when we are on the good side of it.
This has been one of the most intriguing, engaging, enjoyable and worthwhile committee inquiries that I have participated in. Thanks to Andrew Snedden for looking after us and to all those who provided the most important evidence that fed this process.
I want to thank my colleagues from both sides of the chamber, Ms Cheyne and Mr Wall, for the way that they have gone about their business. There have been a number of occasions during this process whereby individual members of this committee—I daresay all three of us—have been forced to step away from positions that have long been held by our respective parties. There has been an amazing deal of bipartisanship and common sense displayed. Madam Speaker, I wish that our parliament were able to function with the same spirit that has been displayed in this committee. In essence, there is no real reason why it cannot.
In a very short period of time we have managed to turn over many stones in search of the elusive solution to the perceived distortion of the petrol market here in the ACT. As Ms Cheyne alluded to, along the way we stumbled on things that at first looked like solutions only to find upon further examination that they were unlikely to deliver the required result. We discovered that the solutions to the perceived distortion of the market were much more complex than most people realise. We were all forced to consider many things outside the box.
I am extremely supportive of the process that we went through in releasing an interim report with a number of possible recommendations. I hope that the recommendations that this committee has made will be actioned by this government. I hope, too, that if they are, the community steps up to the plate and understands that consumers play a major role. Discerning consumers must play a major role if they are genuinely interested in getting a better deal.
MR WALL (Brindabella) (10.21): I would like to start, as my committee colleagues did, by thanking Andrew Snedden, the secretary of the committee, and acknowledging
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