Jim Turnour (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this morning to formally voice concerns over the price of fuel in tropical North Queensland. The price of fuel, unleaded, diesel and LPG is an issue which I regularly talk about with members of the community. Whether I am out in my mobile office, doorknocking or talking to people in the community, I regularly get correspondence on this issue and people in the community are particularly passionate about it. And there are real concerns about inflated prices when compared with metropolitan centres, major fluctuations in price and so on. How often do I hear that they are quick to put the price up when oil prices increase but when the price drops it takes a lot longer before we see a change at the bowser?

The seat of Leichhardt, encompassing Cairns, Port Douglas, Mossman, Cape York and the Torres Straits experiences petrol prices well above those in metropolitan areas. Only yesterday the price of unleaded petrol in the Brisbane suburb of Marsden was 110.9c a litre and in the city suburb of Spring Hill it was 109.9c a litre. Yesterday the price of unleaded in my hometown of Cairns was around 118.9c a litre and the price of unleaded at Weipa was 151.9 c a litre. In parts of the Torres Strait you can pay up to three dollars for a litre of fuel.

We know that these costs can be different because of the remoteness and the volume of fuel pumped, but our prices are also linked to the Asia-Pacific region through the Singapore Mogas 95 unleaded and not the US crude price, as many people commonly think, and also to the value of the Australian dollar. These factors all impact on the price of fuel. But there are also valid concerns in the community about the differences in the price of fuel in regional communities as compared to our major capital cities.

There are also real concerns about the takeover or the opportunity for Caltex to possibly take over 302 Mobil service stations and the impact that this could possibly have on competition. I am pleased the minister for small business and competition policy has said that if the takeover lessens competition the government will be looking to the ACCC to block that. The ACCC is currently examining that and a decision will be brought down on 5 August. The government is doing what it can to keep control of fuel prices through giving additional power to the ACCC and establishing a petrol commissioner. We wanted to introduce a national FuelWatch scheme but were prevented from doing this by the opposition.

Fuel prices are a real concern to me and a real concern to many members of my local community. I will continue to take these issues up with the appropriate ministers and I would encourage members of my community do who have concerns to continue to contact me about these issues. If they have real issues or concerns about lack of competition or improper activities by station operators they should get in touch with me and I will continue to take those up with the petrol commissioner and follow this issue closely.