Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Revenue) Share this | Hansard source

This has been a wide-ranging and I think fruitful debate, and some very good points have been raised. I reinforce the fact that the opposition is heavily supportive of the alternative fuels industry, including LPG, ethanol, biodiesel and CNG, and of course we have been pushing hard for the establishment of a gas to liquids industry in this country. But this will turn out to be a very disappointing debate if the Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources does not take the opportunity to answer some very important questions that we have posed throughout the course of the debate. Of course, the first question is: is he going to support our very important amendments to the Trade Practices Act and, if not, why not? Secondly, is he going to support our attempt to extend the referral powers of the Treasurer to both houses of this parliament or to any parliamentary committee? Those are, of course, the referral powers to allow the chairman of the ACCC to inquire into prices—in this case, petrol prices—if he sees a prima facie case to do so. If not, why not? This is a very responsible approach on our part. The third question is just as important, if not more important. We need the industry minister to tell us—

See this speech in context