Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

After the member for Blair’s ranting it would be wrong of me not to respond in some way and correct some of the mistruths that he has put onto the record, but there are so many I will not have time in this short five minutes. I want to say this before I talk about the issue that I was going to raise tonight: the member for Blair is wrong again. Three roads are actually better than two. What we need is a full upgrade of the Ipswich Motorway no matter what other roads are built. What we also need is the full extension of the Centenary Highway through Springfield, through the Ripley Valley, connecting back up with Ipswich. That is currently underway and will be done within the next 18 months.

What we also need is a full bypass, not the half bypass which is being promoted by the federal government and the member for Blair. We need a full bypass, a real one, which does not just skirt around the suburb of Goodna but takes all of the traffic and is a full-length bypass. Three roads are better than two; a full bypass is better than a half bypass. All this government has done on this for the last 11 years is nothing. They have done nothing on the Ipswich Motorway; it is their federally funded road and they have not spent one cent on it. Just to correct the record, stage 1 of the Ipswich Motorway to upgrade the Gailes-Logan interchange is actually currently under construction, under full traffic conditions, but of course the member for Blair will never admit that.

Tonight I also want to raise a very serious issue for many of my constituents, and those of the member for Blair as well, and that is the price of petrol. For 11 years we have had a government that has refused to do anything about that. But, with a change of heart and a change of mood when you are desperate just short of an election, you might get something. The reality is that a Rudd Labor government will do something because we are committed and we will do something real that can make a difference to people at the bowser. We have announced that we will appoint a national petrol commissioner whose sole responsibility will be to formally monitor and investigate price gouging and collusion. The ACCC has a lot on its plate and it is way too busy to do all the things that it is tasked to do. This government will not even allow it the power to properly investigate collusion and gouging in the fuel industry, so what we need is a petrol commissioner. That is what people deserve and need. The commissioner will be charged with ensuring motorists get a serious fair go. Petrol is expensive, so it is important that we ensure that there is no price gouging at any point in the supply chain. I am sure it is nothing new to anybody listening to this or reading this later that just before Christmas, before Easter, before public holidays and before school holidays a mysterious jump in the petrol price occurs, and it jumps quite high. There is something wrong with the way that petrol pricing works in this country. We need to do something serious about it, and that can be done through the appointment of a national petrol commissioner.

The Labor Party has been committed to this task for some time. We have been committed to giving power to the ACCC to monitor this and to the ACCC having the investigative power to do something about the price of petrol in this country. It is not good enough for this government to always carry on that it is global prices and that nothing needs to be done by the government. We need a petrol cop on the beat to make sure that petrol prices are fair at the bowsers. Maybe this government thinks it is fair and that it does not need to do any of those things because, in its view, a spike in the price of petrol just before Easter is fair. There is discrepancy from pump to pump and from state to state, but this government will not do anything about it.

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are government members in here arguing with me. They think it is okay for people to pay too much! After 11 years of no action, 11 years of sitting on their hands, 11 years of running out of ideas and 11 years of people growing tired of the government, they have finally decided that they are going to do a little bit of something. We have the Treasurer making a statement that he now thinks it may be necessary to have a one-off investigation by the ACCC.

We say that is not good enough. How about permanent powers for the ACCC? How about a petrol cop on the petrol beat? How about doing something real for people who are suffering because the cost of living and the cost of housing under this government are unaffordable? Add to that the cost of interest rate payments, and the cost of petrol for most families is simply unaffordable. You do not have to take my word; take the word of Mr Graeme Samuel, the ACCC chairman, who said:

I call on the petrol retailers to immediately give Australian motorists a fair go and drop their pump prices in line with recent international price movements.

Even he thinks that petrol consumers should get a fair go. Why doesn’t this government think they should get a fair go? If that is not enough, De-Anne Kelly, a government member, also thinks that that is the case. (Time expired)