Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Of course all these folk are irrelevant to the general debate, I presume! The President of the NRMA says:

Our research this shows that FuelWatch is of benefit to motorists and if introduced in the eastern states then they will get the benefits of the people in the West who have been receiving that benefit for some years.

Then you have David Moir, Executive Manager Advocacy, RACWA, who says:

Our recommendations to the commission—

that is, the petrol price inquiry—

are that the FuelWatch system is not only maintained in WA but a similar system is adopted in other states.

If you look at this range of comments it is quite clear that there is a huge array of support for the scheme across the country.

As I said in response to a question yesterday, there is obviously going to be conflicting information and advice on this. We understand that. We said that before, we said it again yesterday and I will say again today. That is because we are moving in an area where the Liberal state government of Western Australia decided to move in the year 2000 and then subsequent to that we have had recommendations from these bodies for this action to be taken nationally. We have always said that there is no silver bullet on petrol, but we have also said that, if you look at the evidence produced in this lengthy inquiry of several hundred pages, commissioned by the member for Higgins—he who seeks to return, we think, to the frontbench, depending on whether he beats the member for Mayo to the frontbench—if you look at page 247 of this report and its conclusions on the net impact on price, which is over the period survey of 2001-07 a net impact on price of 1.9 cents per litre less, then this provides a basis for a reasonable course of action. But, as we said on the day that we launched this policy, it does not represent a silver bullet. It does, however, help competition policy at the margins.

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