Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Treasurer. I refer to the Treasurer’s top 10 tips for shoppers, which are listed on his personal website, and to the Prime Minister’s answer to the Leader of the Opposition’s first question. Tip No. 8 states that shoppers should:

Ask store managers to match their competitor’s prices on particular products ...

Will the Treasurer confirm that under the government’s proposed Fuelwatch scheme, once a petrol retailer has nominated their price, it will be illegal for them to match a lower priced competitor, even if asked by a customer to do so?

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. The opposition can do nothing but sneer at average Australian families who do the shopping. They have a snobby disdain for the fact that people out there might be interested in where they can buy a special. That was absolutely on display in this House last week by the member for Curtin—the snobby disdain for the fact that I have had a price watch operating in my electorate since 1993. It is staffed by a band of loyal volunteers who have supplied information to people in my electorate who want that information and who have come to rely on it.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order to do with relevance. It is a very simple question.

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

The question made reference to the 10 tips.

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, I was asked about the local price watch activities of my team and my volunteers. I think the question demonstrates a lot about the mindset of those opposite. It was those opposite who only last year said working Australian families have never been better off. That is what they were saying last year. This year we have the so-called concern for cost-of-living pressures from fuel and from the supermarket. I know what they were saying last year about our activities when we were talking about the things that really mattered to Australian families—and the government are still talking about those things. We are putting in place policies to deal with them, but I will come to those in a moment. There seems to be a competition on the other side of the House. They are trying to outdo the former Prime Minister’s comment that working families had never been better off. We have had, since the election, the comment from the member for North Sydney that he did not know what was happening under Work Choices. Do you remember that? He had no idea that people’s wages and working conditions were being ripped away under Work Choices. Of course, we had, in the middle of last year, the comment by the former Treasurer that he had inflation right where he wanted it—

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

The Treasurer will relate his remarks to the question.

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

just at a time when inflation was building to a 16-year high. Of course, to top it off, the doozy of them all was the comment by the member for Wentworth in this House that when it came to inflation at a 16-year high—

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

The Treasurer will bring his answer to a close.

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

it was mission accomplished.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order to do with relevance.

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

The Treasurer will return to the subject matter of the question.

Wayne Swan (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If the member for Wentworth spent less time in focus groups, less time in front of the mirror and more time with working families he would understand the importance of supporting our inflation fighting budget. That is what he would understand and he would be backing us in the Senate to push through the building of our surplus so that we can put downward pressure on inflation and do something fundamentally for working families.