Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to contribute to the debate on petrol prices. I had hoped to hear from the members who spoke before me some policy on how they are going to reduce the price of petrol. The inference in the motion is that there is somehow a magic way in which the government can reduce the price of fuel for the general public. At this stage, I have heard nothing from the member for Holt. We at least heard a bit of policy from the member for Batman, but we have heard nothing about the real issues. It is fairly clear to anyone who knows anything about this that it is all about supply and demand. At present, supply and demand is so tight that any disturbance on the world scene anywhere near an oil producing nation increases the fluctuations in price. Of course that hurts the travelling public and the budgets of Australians; there is no argument about that. But, if you are honest and have a look at prices around the world, you will see that Australia still has the fourth cheapest petrol in the world and the sixth cheapest diesel in the world. We are not up there with the extremely high price countries. If you lived in Argentina, for example, you might have something to complain about, because they certainly have a high price for fuel over there—and very low per capita income. Australia is certainly not up there.

The member for Batman seems to think the magic bullet is to suddenly jump into alternative fuels. Of course we are interested in alternative fuels. Because I represent a rural electorate, I am very interested in alternative fuels. But you cannot artificially create a market. I think the market is adapting. We are seeing more and more of these fuels being produced, more ethanol plants are being built around Australia and, as the market works, we will start to see alternative fuels come into play. I am sure that the oil producing nations of the world are quite concerned about this. One of the real issues is the refining capacity in the world at the present time, and efforts are being made to try and overcome the problems with refining capacity. The oil producing nations of this world are not stupid. They know that, if alternative fuels start to get into the marketplace, they will sell less oil. So they will be looking very closely at how they can keep balance in the price. They are well aware of the effect of the oil price on international markets and international economies. I am sure that, given a bit of time—and it might take a couple of years to do it—we will see extra refining capacity in the world, and I think we will probably see a bit more balance in oil prices.

Having said that, the opposition give the government no credit for what it has already done. I think it was in 1991 that fuel excise was capped. At present, fuel excise is 38.3c. If fuel excise had not been capped, with natural inflation it would now be somewhere around 60c a litre. That would have been a huge impost over and above the already high price of fuel. I have not heard any policy from members of the opposition as to what they might do to reduce the price of fuel. If they suggest that, in government, they are going to take off some of the excise, what government programs are they going to cut? Excise is collected by the government to pay for pensions, health and education, which are very important areas of government. What programs are they going to cut if they are going to cut the tax intake? It is very important to have a look at all these things. If you are going to raise this in a debate, you need to look closely at what the effects are going to be, one side or the other, and not just get up in a political stunt and talk about the price of fuel. You need to look very closely at the cause and effect—what is going to happen if you do these types of things. I do not think the opposition have really thought this through.

The government is well aware of the problems people are presently having in coping with the increased price of fuel. We have had 44 inquiries into fuel prices since 1983. I used to be in the New South Wales government and I can tell you that we had several inquiries there into the price of fuel. If the member for Holt is concerned about this, why doesn’t he write a letter to the ACCC? Why doesn’t he refer it to the ACCC to see whether they will investigate it? He does not have to wait for the Treasurer. Instead of coming in here with a political stunt, he can write to the ACCC and ask them to investigate whether the oil companies are engaged in price gouging and not handing on the true costs to the community. Let us do the hard work and see what we can do. (Time expired)

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