Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, the Service Economy and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors and the Service Economy. Has the minister advised his colleagues of any concerns he has about the impact on small business of Labor’s Fuelwatch scheme?

Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Finance Minister on Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. Of course I had an interest in the impact of FuelWatch on small business and so I made some inquiries. Those inquiries revealed, for example, that upon the introduction of FuelWatch in Western Australia, in the period from 2001 to 2007, the number of independents went up quite substantially. This is no secret, because the member could have checked out the relevant website today. He would have found out that as of today there are 93 different independents operating in the metro markets in Western Australia. I will give a couple of examples: Gull has 28 outlets, Independent has 15, Better Choice has three, Quick Fuel has one, Liberty has eight, Peak has 20, United has 15, Westco has three, for a total of 93. In addition, in non-metro outlets, there are 64 independents operating, bringing the total to 157.

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. The question was very specific: what advice did he provide to his colleagues about the impact on small business of the Labor Party’s plan called Fuelwatch?

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister appears to be giving advice.

Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Finance Minister on Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Indeed, I provided that advice to my colleagues—obviously not as of today’s date, because the discussion was held and the decision was made in April. I advised my colleagues that I considered that FuelWatch could, if anything, advantage small business in Western Australia, and indeed I was right, based on the evidence over the period March 2001 to June 2007. There is not only a substantial number—and an increase in the number—of operators, as I am advised, but total sites for branded independents have gone up from 34 per cent to 36 per cent and for general independents it has increased from two per cent to five per cent. That is the sort of information that would have been available to the member for Moncrieff. That is the sort of information that would have been available to the opposition if it had so inquired. That is the sort of information that leads me to fully support the introduction of Fuelwatch in the eastern states, because I believe that small business will be big beneficiaries from the introduction of Fuelwatch.