Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, given that the ACCC and four government departments have found that fuel prices in rural and regional areas are likely to rise under your Fuelwatch scheme, what plan do you have to reduce petrol prices in non-metropolitan areas?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The honourable member will be familiar with the fact that, with the introduction of Fuelwatch, the option lay in the government’s proposal under the legislation for rural and regional areas to opt in or out of the system. That is the first point. The second is this: in terms of practical solutions necessary for dealing with what is the greatest global oil shock that the world has seen in the last 30 years, governments across the world are dealing with a range of possible responses.

Here in Australia, the various responses that we have put forward—including Fuelwatch, the Petrol Commissioner, and investment in the manufacture of green cars in Australia, as well as a global course of action to place pressure on OPEC to increase the overall oil supply—have met with four responses from those opposite—that is, they don’t support it, they don’t support it, they don’t support it and they don’t support it. What we have is ‘Captain Negative’ opposite, but we are trying to get on with the job of dealing with what is a challenge for the global economy. It is a challenge which has brought forward protests across all developing economies, riots in many, and unprecedented high prices across the world. We are getting on with the business of governing and doing so in a responsible manner.