Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to reports today that motorists face delays of up to 12 months to get an LPG conversion. Is the Prime Minister aware that motor mechanics have been on the national skills shortage list every year for the last 10 years? Why won’t the government follow the lead of the Victorian Labor government, which has funded 500 extra training places—a program that takes only 115 hours and is delivered part-time over weekends and in the evenings—so mechanics can upgrade their skills and become licensed LPG installers? Prime Minister, why do you do nothing while your skills crisis and the petrol price pain hurt all Australians?

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Obviously the Leader of the Opposition and I read the same news report this morning. My take is totally different. I thought that story was good news. I thought what it demonstrated was that the policy of the government is working. The Leader of the Opposition is a very interesting man. You bring in a subsidy that has a dramatic effect on the conversion rate to LPG, and the Leader of the Opposition says: ‘This is terrible. We’ve got to do something about it.’ Let me tell the Leader of the Opposition that the Australian LPG association estimates that it will take around six months for the industry’s capacity to meet demand. As a result of the measures introduced by the government, there will be about 105,000 conversions—that is their estimate—over the 12-month period from the introduction of the measure. That is significantly higher than the current rate of about 32,000 a year. Let me quote from the words in a letter to my colleague from Tony Chapman, one of the LPG spokesmen quoted in the Australian article. He said this, inter alia:

... my view is that this policy is a great initiative from the federal government to assist the consumer who are paying high petrol prices as well as benefiting Australian’s environment and energy diversification.

There has been a huge response to this initiative. Of course, when you provide a subsidy for something that previously has not been subsidised you are going to have a short-term excess of demand over supply, and no skills policy, no technical education policy, is ever going to provide for it in advance. If you provided in advance for every subsidy that might be introduced, you would have a lot of idle capacity. It shows just how little the Leader of the Opposition knows about the ordinary laws of supply and demand.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I call the honourable member for Cook.

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

Mr Fitzgibbon interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! I have called the honourable member for Cook.

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

Mr Speaker, I know I caught your eye, and I would appreciate the opportunity.

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for Cook will resume his seat. I call the member for Hunter.

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

Mr Speaker, can I invite the Prime Minister to table the document from which he was quoting in the hope that it will demonstrate that only three per cent of motor vehicles in Australia will have access—

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Hunter will not debate his request.

John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will table this letter. It concludes with the words:

I once again confirm my wholehearted support for this program.

It starts with the statement:

I was disappointed to read an article in today’s Australian that stated that I had criticised the Government policy on providing a rebate for conversion to LPG for motorists.

This could be no further from the truth, my view is that this policy is a great initiative from the federal government to assist the consumer who are paying high petrol prices ...

I table with it with pleasure.