Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak today on an issue that affects everyone in my electorate and in fact everyone in Australia, and that is fuel. My electorate of Hindmarsh stretches from the city of Adelaide to the sea, and the disparity in petrol prices can be enormous. As I drive from my residence in Mile End to the other end of the electorate, to Glenelg, where the electorate office is, I pass up to five or six service stations, and the prices vary sometimes by 5c, 10c and even up to 20c or 25c. That is why the government has introduced Fuelwatch, a comprehensive fuel monitoring and reporting service.

We know that under Fuelwatch petrol stations will be required to notify the ACCC of their next day’s fuel prices by around 2 pm each day. The ACCC will make these prices for the next day publicly available on its website, via email or SMS. Petrol stations will then be required to make a commitment not to change their prices for a fixed 24-hour period. FuelWatch in WA has been a successful and popular consumer tool there since its introduction in 2001 by the then Liberal Premier Richard Court. Motorists find it useful and believe they can save money by using the tool.

There is a continual difference in fuel prices in Hindmarsh on any given day, and what the residents have been saying to me is that they normally do shop around to find this disparity in prices between petrol stations and that Fuelwatch will assist them in knowing exactly where to go to get the cheapest price on the day. Fuelwatch has removed the angst from prices that fluctuate daily, giving consumers choice and certainty. The WA FuelWatch website receives roughly 200,000 hits per month, and over 30,000 people subscribe to the email. Motorists in Hindmarsh and across Australia now have a government that is on their side when it comes to petrol prices and that is ensuring that they have the adequate tool in their hands to know where to purchase the cheapest petrol.

Fuelwatch promotes transparency and competition in the retail petrol industry. Currently, petrol companies can lodge a new petrol price every 15 minutes, as they please and as they respond to their competitors. If they drop their prices and no-one else around them drops their prices, up they go again. With the Fuelwatch scenario, they will have to put their best price on offer from the beginning.

I know that the members on this side, the member for Shortland and the member for Moreton, support Fuelwatch, and I would like to see the opposition support it as well to ensure that residents in my electorate can get a good deal on fuel. (Time expired)

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

(Ms AE Burke)—Order! In accordance with standing order 193 the time for members’ statements has concluded.