Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to his Treasurer’s statement on 11 December 1996 that the government would abandon petrol prices surveillance because it would reduce regulation, promote competition and ‘put downward pressure on petrol prices to the benefit of consumers’. Can the Prime Minister confirm that the government abandoned prices surveillance of petrol on 1 August 1998? Prime Minister, after 11 years, when will the Treasurer’s downwards pressure on petrol prices kick in?

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

I am certainly aware of the remarks of the Treasurer and, as so often happens, the member for Lalor has misquoted my colleague. The Treasurer, of course, can speak for himself, and very well, in relation to those matters. While people are being reminded of matters could I remind the member for Lalor of the remarks of the member for Rankin on this subject. The member for Rankin wrote a very good article on this subject in which he pointed out that, in effect, those who sought to pretend that the price of petrol in Australia was determined by other than world market forces were deluding themselves.