Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also support the motion on petrol prices before the House. I am pleased to see that the next government member speaking in the debate, the member for Deakin, almost comes from the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne—at least someone in the ballpark of Melbourne will talk about petrol prices; his two colleagues who spoke earlier represent regional Queensland. It is quite nice that one Liberal Party member representing the burbs in the Melbourne will also speak about this issue.

The Howard government has failed to keep petrol prices on hold and, as a result, Melbourne families are struggling to make ends meet. Only yesterday the Melbourne Herald Sun headline screamed at us ‘How higher petrol prices hurt’. A snippet from that opinion piece, which touched on the problems of various motorists, was very interesting. It read:

A 25 per cent jump in the cost of running her car in the past year slugged pizza delivery driver Charlyn Winslow. ‘It used to cost about $28 to fill my car. Now it’s at least $35 and you get fewer trips. Overall, I’m earning less,’ she says. The Port Melbourne pizza shop owner for whom she drives has bumped his delivery charge to $1.50.

Here a young person—a university student, I suspect, who is probably earning her way through uni by delivering pizzas—is copping the petrol price increase with no additional remuneration. The extreme industrial relations legislation that is now in effect, as the member for Holt mentioned, will probably impact her earning ability even more dramatically.

While regional and rural Australians are suffering because their car journeys are usually so lengthy, so too are Melbourne families, who rely heavily on the many short trips they have to make each day. Families are paying record petrol prices. Since the 2004 federal election, the extra cost of filling the tank each week has risen to $84 per month, which is a lot of money for families on fixed incomes to find. As our shadow Treasurer recently pointed out, petrol prices for the average Australian family have skyrocketed by over $400 over the last two years. On top of the recent interest rate rise, families are really feeling the pinch.

While some people are opting to use public transport or ride a bike, this is not feasible for a single working mother in Chadstone who has to drop her toddler off at child care, drop her children off at school, go to work and then pick them all up and shop for groceries at the end of the day—along with all the other chores she has to do on the way home. On average, Victorians drive 15,000 kilometres a year, using around 1,500 litres of petrol. The helpful RACV website clearly states:

Stop/start driving is much less efficient and more polluting than driving at a constant speed. In comparison, free flowing driving, such as uncongested country or freeway travel, uses the least amount of fuel. If possible, organise trips in advance to avoid congested areas and peak-hour traffic.

That would be lovely, but when you are live the suburbs of Melbourne it is virtually impossible. You are constantly stop-start driving. You are stopping and starting at traffic lights and in the traffic, but, more importantly, you are stopping and starting for the 500 different trips you have to do just to get through your day.

Not just families are feeling the pinch. Many small businesses are experiencing severe drops in sales—couriers, independent petrol station owners, delivery services and so on. Indeed, the highest number of people in history have been driving off without paying for their petrol. A lot of people are actually filling up and taking off without paying their petrol bill because they literally cannot afford to.

When Labor was last in government petrol prices were at 70c a litre. Today they have doubled. Those opposite are always citing what we did, but they have doubled petrol prices. The fact is that the Howard government has failed to keep petrol prices low and they are now out of control. The government has failed to address Australia’s dependence on foreign gas, it has failed to encourage our biofuels industry and it has failed to give the ACCC the power to formally monitor petrol prices. We are not talking about another inquiry; we are talking about the ACCC monitoring petrol prices.

While the President of the United States, George Bush, is holding an inquiry into the possible practice of petrol price gouging in the US, his good friend John Howard, our Prime Minister, who is normally more than happy to follow in the President’s footsteps, refuses to allow an ACCC inquiry into alleged price gouging in Australia. This is another broken promise from the Prime Minister. On 7 April, journalist Neil Mitchell asked the Prime Minister whether he would formally direct the ACCC to monitor fuel prices under part 7A of the Trade Practices Act. The Prime Minister responded:

Yes I will. I will ask them to have a look at it...

It must have been a ‘non-core’ promise because, within a week, he had reneged on his word. Not that his word has meant anything for some time.

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