Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the National Fuelwatch (Empowering Consumers) Bill 2008 and cognate bill, because that is what the bill does: it empowers consumers. That is why it will be welcomed by the people of my electorate. It gives them the information they need and it promotes competition. It gives them the information they need about where the cheapest petrol is. And it creates competition in the petrol market. They do not want to pay any more than they have to, and they do not want to pay more because the cost of petrol is being manipulated by parallel pricing or anticompetitive conduct.

That is why the people of Blaxland will support this bill. As the minister said in his second reading speech, this bill will ‘put power back into the hands of Australian motorists’. It will help motorists buy the cheapest petrol at the cheapest petrol stations at the cheapest times. It ends the game of pot luck—guessing what place is the best place to buy petrol today. It will end the frustration of driving past a petrol station in the morning and coming back in the afternoon to find that the petrol price has gone up or, even more frustrating, idling at the petrol station and seeing the price go up while you are waiting in the queue.

There is more volatility in petrol prices than there is in the Liberal Party leadership. In Sydney today you can buy petrol for anywhere between $1.64 and $1.45. This legislation will help motorists to find the cheapest petrol. The young people in the gallery will appreciate this. Their mothers and fathers, because of this legislation, will be able to find out where the cheapest petrol in their suburb is by checking on the internet or by using their mobile phones—by getting an SMS. If they have a satellite navigation system in the car that will also tell them where the cheapest petrol is en route to their destination.

On this side of the House we—the Kevin Rudd Labor government—think that that is a good thing. On the other side of the House the opposition think that it is a bad thing and they are going to vote against this legislation. Interestingly, not all coalition members of parliament think this is a bad thing. There are a lot of coalition MPs around the country who think it is a rather good thing. And that is because it gives motorists information and it encourages competition. The leader of the Liberal Party in New South Wales is one such supporter. He says that Fuelwatch ‘will ease some of the wild fluctuations in weekly pricing which frustrate motorists so much’. He says:

This will ease the burden on families and pensioners by helping drive down prices ...

He goes on:

Fuelwatch will put motorists—not the oil companies—back in charge ... It will put an end to the common frustration for motorists of driving past a petrol station only to find when they return hours later the price has jumped by 10 cents a litre.

Good on you, Barry! We agree. We think that that is right. And he is joined by his fair trading spokesperson, Catherine Cusack. She says:

Mr Rudd has shown leadership … we think it’s good news for motorists and we’re quite happy to come out and congratulate the federal Labor government for doing it.

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