Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

We can discuss and finesse the finer points as to why people have had to wait 11 years for this inquiry, the inquiry that we actually had to have, by the ACCC. But when you look at the evidence from the families in my electorate and the constant high prices that they have to pay for petrol you would hear them saying—these are not just my words but the words of many people whom I speak to in my electorate—‘It’s about time.’ It is about time that the government got serious about looking at what petrol companies have been doing, about the price gouging that has been occurring, and at the consequences for constituents’ lives as a result of the price of petrol.

For example, today, in my electorate of Holt, families will be filling up their petrol tanks at a price between 122.9c per litre and about 123.9c per litre. If you contrast that with June 1998, when the average price of unleaded petrol in metropolitan Melbourne was 68.7c per litre, you find that in nine years families are paying 55.2c per litre more for petrol. In nine years the cost of petrol has risen by 80 per cent, which is a substantial increase out of a person’s income every year. The interesting thing is what you see when you take snapshots through the last few years. For example, after Hurricane Katrina, in September 2005, the average Melbourne metropolitan price was 128.4c per litre. The lowest price recorded for the month was 115.1c; the highest price was 149.9c. That is a difference of 34.8c in that month. If you look at July 2006, which saw the highest prices in the last couple of years, for example in Melbourne, you see that the metropolitan price averaged 136.6c. The lowest price recorded for the month was 126c; the highest price was 149c. That is a difference of 23c. In May 2007 the average price per litre was 130c. The lowest price was 115c; the highest was 143c. That is a difference of 28c. People in my electorate are justifiably asking why this inquiry has taken so long when there is such flagrant evidence of petrol price gouging by petrol companies being passed on to people. If you think that that does not affect normal working people in my electorate, think again.

We see the petrol price impact through community support organisations such as the Casey North Information and Support Service, whose director is Susan Magee. In April 2007, 275 people were assisted with the cost of travel through petrol vouchers or by assistance with the cost of public transport. In Cranbourne, which is a large working-class area with families with mortgages, the vast majority of clients are receiving Safeway vouchers, which can be used for food and petrol, but $30 is the maximum amount that they can give in order to work within the budget. Anecdotally, Leanne Petrides understands that many of her clients are using some if not all of their voucher allocation on petrol and often have to toss up between purchasing food, purchasing petrol, paying bills and buying clothes. There is enormous financial pressure on families. The high petrol costs have added to the financial pressures on families who are already coping with four successive interest rate rises since the 2004 election and eight successive interest rate rises since 2002.

How does this also manifest itself? If you look at the data from the Insolvency and Trustee Service Australia, which is the federal government agency responsible for the administration of personal insolvencies, it shows that in the period from 1999-2000 to 2005-06 personal insolvencies in south-eastern Melbourne have increased from 349 to 596 or by 70.8 per cent. South-eastern Melbourne includes the City of Casey and the Cardinia shire. Given that the City of Casey is the municipality area which the federal electorate of Holt is predominantly based in and has the highest rate of mortgages, we suspect that a majority of these personal insolvencies come from that particular area. This directly relates to the cost of petrol. When we did a survey last year we had an overwhelming response—a 22 per cent response rate—and a large percentage said that the cost of living, fuelled by the cost of petrol, was of concern. As I said in speaking to this motion, what people in my constituency would say, having borne the high price of petrol and the consequent effect on their families, is, ‘It’s about time.’

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