Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1)

notes the continuing and alarmingly high fuel prices in the South Eastern suburbs of Melbourne and across Australia;

(2)

recognises the enormous impact of these high fuel prices for families and their budgets and local businesses in the region;

(3)

acknowledges residents concerns about price gouging within the petroleum refining and distribution industry and their desire for some action to be taken by the Howard Government to reduce fuel prices; and

(4)

asks that, at the very least, the Treasurer take action to direct the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to formally monitor fuel prices under Part VIIA of the Trade Practices Act 1974.

In speaking to this motion, I am relaying the concerns of many of my constituents whom I have spoken to since the sustained rise in petrol prices. It is ironic that, when I raised a motion of a similar nature in this House in November, one of the contributors from the government side basically said that I was overstating the position and that what would happen in reality would be that, due to market forces, the price of petrol would come down to about $1 a litre.

See this speech in context