Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Assistant Treasurer. Will the minister outline to the House the support from motorists, those in Western Australia and other experts, for the government’s Fuelwatch scheme, which will increase price transparency and reduce volatility in petrol markets?

Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think the honourable member for Fremantle for her question, another Western Australian member who understands the benefits of Fuelwatch. Everyday in Western Australia 30,000 emails are sent out to individuals who have subscribed to the FuelWatch system. There are 30,000 emails everyday telling people where they can find the cheapest petrol in Western Australia. Each month the FuelWatch website receives 190,000 visitors—just in Western Australia. There are 190,000 people using the website to find the cheapest fuel in Western Australia.

A very interesting market survey in 2006 found that 86 per cent of Western Australian motorists had used FuelWatch and 10 per cent told the market survey that they saved over $10 a week through the FuelWatch service. Apparently one of those 86 per cent of Western Australian motorists was a member of the Senate, Senator Adams, who said this morning that she thought FuelWatch was working. She joins a long line of conservative politicians who support Fuelwatch. She also joins the Leader of the Opposition in the Northern Territory, Terry Mills, who said:

A FuelWatch system is long overdue particularly in the Territory where we regularly pay the highest prices in the nation. Giving customers information on fuel prices for a 24-hour period will produce sharper competition in the marketplace. FuelWatch will enable consumers to quickly compare the various prices on offer in their town and buy accordingly. People are very price sensitive about the petrol so I am sure consumers will head to the stations offering the best price.

We could not have said it better ourselves! That was the Leader of the Country Liberal Party in the Northern Territory.

As I said yesterday, the ACCC’s report made very clear that there are great concerns about the current operation of the fuel market. They made very clear that there are great concerns about the way information is shared between retailers through their own website. Yesterday we heard the shadow Treasurer, the member for Wentworth, claim that the ACCC does not really support FuelWatch, that it is all a socialist plot to take control of the market. Let us see what that well-known socialist Graeme Samuel thinks about that. Comrade Samuel said on the Business Sunday program:

There has been a lot of focus on the one to two cents saving which our analysis through the petrol inquiry indicated occurred in Perth and we believe it will occur across Australia.

These are the words of the chairman of the ACCC—‘we believe it will occur across Australia’. He went on:

But to focus on that ignores the most important element of this FuelWatch scheme which I think is a very important process to be introduced for the benefit of Australian motorists.

That is the ACCC Chairman, Graeme Samuel. He went on to say:

The really important saving for motorists is the power it gives them to know when prices will be lifted and reduced—

And, more importantly, know where they can buy petrol at the lowest possible price—

If you know that prices will be lifted by 10c tomorrow, you’ve got 15 hours notice under the FuelWatch scheme to buy today, that’ll save you 10c a litre.

That is the Chairman of the ACCC, Mr Graeme Samuel. We also heard from the opposition yesterday that Graeme Samuel used to oppose Fuelwatch so, therefore, it must be a bad thing. So let’s see what Mr Samuel says about that. He was asked on the 7.30 Report: ‘Isn’t it true that it was you who long questioned the effectiveness of introducing a Fuelwatch scheme?’ Remember, they said the report was not rigorous and there was not enough analysis. This is what Mr Samuel said:

Oh, absolutely, and I would be the first to say that I was wrong. We would not, I would have to say to you, examine the FuelWatch scheme in as much detail and with as much rigour as the commission has examined it as part of the petrol inquiry.

That is what the ACCC says about the Fuelwatch proposal and their analysis.

But in all seriousness, and in all fairness, I can understand the difficulties that the opposition have. In all seriousness, and I mean this in all fairness, the government has had the benefit of working through the ACCC’s report with them over several months and working through the implications. The ACCC recommended that more work be done on Fuelwatch. I understand that the government had had the benefit of that analysis and that process and that the opposition has not. I wrote to the Leader of the Opposition on 16 April and 18 April suggesting that he receive a briefing from Mr Samuel, from the Petrol Commissioner and from Dr Stephen King, one of the ACCC commissioners and a well-respected expert on competition matters. That briefing has not yet occurred. But today I can, for the benefit of the House, facilitate a briefing for any member of parliament by Mr Samuel, Dr King and Mr Walker on the benefits of the ACCC’s proposal for Fuelwatch. For any members, collectively or individually, the chairman of the ACCC is more than happy to work them through the analysis that the ACCC has done, work them through the econometric analysis and work them through the proposals. If members seriously want to deal with petrol prices and they seriously want to hear about the rigorous analysis that the ACCC has done, they will take up that offer and they will meet—

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

The ACCC cancelled a meeting today! It was they who cancelled the meeting!

Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think you will find the member for Dickson has another engagement at four o’clock.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Finance, Competition Policy and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on a point of order: I am happy to take up the invitation. Mr Samuel cancelled the appointment until after estimates.

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

Order! It is not a point of order. The member for Dickson will resume his seat.

Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I made it very clear that that briefing had not yet occurred, but the chairman of the ACCC is available for the Leader of the Opposition and the shadow Treasurer or any other member. Far be it from me to give the opposition political advice, but the chairman of the ACCC will be appearing before estimates next week and he will be more than happy to take the questions of opposition senators as to why the ACCC supports Fuelwatch.

Let’s have none of this nonsense that the ACCC does not support Fuelwatch, because on this side of the House we back the people who stand up for consumers. The ACCC is the body which supports consumers. The ACCC is the regulator. You left them out to dry. The ACCC called for criminalisation of cartels. You would not do it. The ACCC called for a strengthening of the Trade Practices Act. You would not do it.

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

Order! The minister will refer his remarks through the chair!

Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We will back the regulator any day of the week.

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

My question is to the Prime Minister. With petrol crashing through the $1.60 a litre barrier, why won’t the Prime Minister guarantee Australians they will not pay a cent more a litre for petrol under Fuelwatch?

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

The advice on which the government has constructed its Fuelwatch policy comes from this 300- to 400-page report commissioned by the member for Higgins, commissioned by the previous government, and delivered to this government and referred to just now by the Assistant Treasurer. It says quite clearly that the relevant weekly average price margin was around 1.9c per litre less on average for the period from January 2001 to January 2007. We believe that is a robust basis upon which to implement this, as in fact does Senator Adams from Western Australia. We think it is a robust way ahead. We think it is not a silver bullet, but we also think it is appropriate.

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

Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. Why won’t the Prime Minister guarantee Australians they will not pay a cent more for petrol—

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

The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat. A point of order is not just an opportunity to repeat the question. If the intent of the point of order was relevance, the Prime Minister is responding to the question. Prime Minister.

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

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. This was a very clear-cut piece of advice commissioned by those opposite, ignored by those opposite, but we have decided to back consumers. This actually is the party which supports consumers. It seems increasingly that those opposite are the party of big oil.