Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party, Deputy Leader of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Hansard source

I will withdraw that remark. I was not reflecting on the people of Longman. The people of Longman were not interjecting. Mr Luscombe said the margins in Western Australia were higher than in other areas. The interviewer said:

I was interested in the comments on FuelWatch and you said that the analyst’s call that you tend to get a better profit margin in the west than you do elsewhere because you do not have to take prices down.

Mr Luscombe’s comments were:

That is not because we want to. It is illegal to take prices down during the day.

He goes on to say:

If you put in a price but someone is a cent cheaper than you down the road then you do not have the opportunity to match that price.

If someone down the road has put in a cheaper price you do not have the opportunity to match it. I put that to the ACCC in a briefing yesterday. I asked, ‘Can the ACCC advise: is the tender effect of service stations putting their price in the day before greater than the market effect of service stations competing during the day?’ I asked whether they had any information on it. They said no. Part of the basis for FuelWatch is that service stations put in a price the day ahead and are prevented from competing during the day. But the ACCC, who the government are alleging are so strongly in support of FuelWatch despite there not being a recommendation in the report, were unable to comment on whether motorists would be better off having service stations tendering the day before as opposed to having service stations competing in the market, matching the competition down the road and matching the competition in the next suburb. I put another proposition to members that were present at the briefing. Mr King made the comment that information was useless with regard to the pricing of petrol in an information regime if it was not fixed for 24 hours. He made the statement that information was useless to consumers if it was not fixed for 24 hours. I said, ‘Why is that?’ He made the same statement as I think the Prime Minister that the price could change before you get down to the service station. That is an unsubstantiated value judgement.

We have markets right around the country that fluctuate during the day. We have markets where people will become aware of a price and take advantage of that price in a range of ways. They do not have to be fixed for 24 hours. Yet the representative of the ACCC was putting forward an absolutely unsubstantiated value judgement that, by somehow not fixing a particular price for 24 hours—if that was not so fixed—then the information would be absolutely useless.

I sit here in amazement that the only measure that this government has entertained of any note in relation to fuel is the introduction of this fraudulent scheme. The opposition on the other hand put forward a proposal that will reduce the costs to motorists by 5c a litre; it is a proposal that will provide a real reduction in the price of motoring; and it is a proposal that would be welcomed by many consumers around the country. It is a proposal that the other side decries. There is a stark contrast between a 5c reduction in excise, which would provide real reductions for motorists and real savings for families who are struggling to fill their cars, and the scheme the government is perpetrating, which is merely a fraud.

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