Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Revenue) Share this | Hansard source

I am always happy to refer cases to the ACCC, which I have done on a not irregular basis. But the point I make again is that there is a widely held view in the community—and we have plenty of legal opinion and, indeed, an all-party Senate committee to back that view—that the Trade Practices Act is now not sufficient to deal with these cases. The ACCC can take the cases all they like but they cannot get an outcome because of the deficiencies in the Trade Practices Act. That is the issue the government has to fix—not the opposition.

But can I take the parliamentary secretary to another issue, and that goes to revenue from fuel taxes. We heard some debate in the House today about various views on the extent to which the government is taking GST revenue compared with the extent to which excise has fallen as a result of the 7c reduction in excise in 2000 and the subsequent freezing of the excise component. The Treasurer bandied some figures around in question time today. Is the parliamentary secretary prepared to table—if not now, at some future time—further detail on the submission that the Treasurer was making in the House?

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