Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to reports today from Fueltrac that motorists are paying at least 2c a litre more than they should for every litre of petrol sold in Queensland. Why won’t the Prime Minister instruct his Treasurer to direct the ACCC to formally monitor the price of petrol under part VIIA of the Trade Practices Act—the only way that the ACCC can use its full powers to examine pricing policies behind the scenes and not just at the bowser? Why won’t the Prime Minister finally stand up for working families on petrol prices?

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

The facts are that the ACCC does very closely monitor petrol prices; it monitors about 55 per cent of sites, which number some thousands. The view of Mr Harris, who is the federal president of the automotive chambers—that is, the combination of the RACV, the RACQ, the NRMA and the like—is that the price being charged at the bowser in Australia accurately reflects the Singapore price. There has been an increase in the Singapore price for a variety of reasons, including some breakdown in refining capacity. It is not possible to divorce the price of petrol in Australia either from the price of crude oil or from the Singapore price. If the views of the chief of the motorist organisations is to be believed, the price at the bowser painfully reflects the very high world price of refined petroleum—and, in those circumstances, the Leader of the Opposition should understand the reality. I know why he asked the question like this but it does not absolve him from a responsibility to pay some regard to the facts of the situation.