Louise Markus (Greenway, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Does the Prime Minister agree that even if the arguments in favour of FuelWatch had some validity, working families such as those in Western Sydney would receive the least benefit?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the question of fuel, we need to embrace a range of policies. The Assistant Treasurer before outlined the undertakings we gave prior to the last election on enhancing competition in the fuel industry and our implementation of those. And to those we have added our new policy in relation to FuelWatch. On the FuelWatch question, the honourable member refers to Sydney in particular.

Louise Markus (Greenway, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Western Sydney!

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The leader of the New South Wales Liberal Party, Barry O’Farrell, said:

[FuelWatch] will also ease some of the wild fluctuations in weekly pricing which frustrate motorists so much … This will ease the burden on families and pensioners by helping drive down petrol prices—

this is Mr O’Farrell—

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

Also, if you look at the New South Wales Liberal fair trading spokesman, Catherine Cusack—

Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Manager of Opposition Business in the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order of relevance. The Prime Minister was asked a specific question about families in Western Sydney. He cannot spend his whole life copying from the Liberal Party for his policies—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The member for North Sydney will resume his seat. That is not the way to put a point of order.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I find that remarkable from the Manager for Opposition Business, who said, I think, that this policy was copying Liberal policy. Is that what he was saying? And we have just had them say they are going to block this policy in the Senate! I can make neither head nor tail of where the Liberal Party stand on this matter, or any other matter on fuel policy. Divided on excise, now divided on FuelWatch. It will be remarkable to see what unfolds in the Senate.

I say in response to the honourable member’s question, New South Wales Liberal opposition fair trading spokesman, Catherine Cusack, said:

[Labor] has shown leadership… we think it’s good news for motorists and we’re quite happy—

Brendan Nelson (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. The question in plain language to the Prime Minister is: how can the families in the outer suburbs of Australia get cheap petrol from watching it?

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat. The Prime Minister is addressing the question.

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Again I return to the question asked by the honourable member, quoting the Liberal opposition fair trading spokesman in New South Wales, the state from which she comes. The spokesman said:

[Labor] 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.

If the Liberal Party cannot sort itself out within Canberra on where it stands on excise, it certainly cannot sort itself out nationally about where it stands on FuelWatch. I find it remarkable that those opposite could hold open the possibility of this measure being blocked in the Senate.

The bottom line is that there is no silver bullet when it comes to petrol. We all believe that we need to help working families under financial pressure to the greatest extent we can in dealing with the pressures on the family budget, but we certainly do not have the view that those opposite had barely five or six months ago that working families have never been better off. We did not make an undertaking to the Australian people that interest rates would be kept at record lows. What we have said quite consistently is that we need to enhance what we can by way of competition policy. One statement after another the member for Higgins criticised us for putting forward those policies in opposition, saying that they were not sufficiently prescriptive on the future. Check the member for Higgins’s statements on this in his transcripts. So I say to the honourable member that this will help at the margins. We do not wish to understate it and we do not wish to overstate it: it will help at the margins. But we think in terms of the experience of Western Australia it is the right way forward. Of course there will be conflicting advice on these questions, there will be conflicting evidence, there will be conflicting points of view. We, however, believe this is the right way forward.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Ms Julie Bishop interjecting

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If the Deputy Leader of the Opposition contests this policy, which is what she is doing, I presume she is saying the same directly and publicly to the state Liberal leadership in her own state of Western Australia. I find it remarkable that the Liberal Party cannot develop a single coherent position on fuel policy.