Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about the cost of petrol, particularly the contrast between the cost of petrol and the cost of diesel today. People in the bush, and indeed across Australia, have seen record high prices for fuel. Thankfully we are now starting to see in some urban fuel outlets a rapid decrease in prices, in fact petrol prices have fallen to below a dollar per litre. Certainly, that is good news for families and drivers, particularly as we travel across the country at this time of year at Christmas, when families come together to meet with friends and, of course, celebrate the spirit of Christmas. But the affordability of fuel pricing comes only with healthy competition—we all agree with that—and for many in rural and remote Australia competitive prices are simply not available.

Yet for the people of the bush the affordability of fuel is perhaps even more important than for those in the cities. Out in the bush, there is no subsidised urban transport—no subsidised urban buses or subsidised urban trains. I acknowledge the need to subsidise and bring down the cost of public transport in urban situations to ease congestion on the urban road systems, but I say to the Main Committee that people out in the bush do not have that same option—they have to use their motor vehicles to commute and to take their children to school.

In fact the great freight task of this nation is carried on the back of trucks, and particularly in my electorate where we have type 2 road trains hauling cattle to market. We have type 2 road trains—that is, three trailers behind one large prime mover—taking dry goods as far north as Darwin, coming out of Brisbane and the southern capital cities. They of course all use diesel as well. So for people out in rural areas, whether it is for a family or whether it is for a business person, the price of fuel is a huge issue for the family or the business budget. On the disparity in price today between diesel and petrol, I do not believe I or any of us in this place have had a satisfactory answer as to why diesel can be 20c or 30c per litre more expensive at the bowser, even in urban situations, than petrol is.

As the committee would be aware, the Liberal-Nationals have always had a focus on the importance of keeping fuel costs as low as possible. In fact, in 2000 and 2001 in government we actually reduced the excise on fuel by a total of 8.2c a litre—and, importantly, we also abolished the automatic indexation of fuel, which was a legacy of the Labor era of Hawke and Keating. Had we not done that, fuel would be some 17.7c a litre dearer than it is today. Whether it is the price of petrol in the city or whether it is the price of diesel in the city, that is the fact of the matter. By abolishing that automatic indexation, fuel today is—whether it is diesel or petrol—17.7c a litre cheaper than it would otherwise have been under a Labor policy. We know that the minister was trying to introduce that into the trucking sector again, but, thanks to our senators in the upper house, we were able to block that move by the minister, who wanted to reintroduce the automatic indexation of fuel excise in the trucking sector without coming back to parliament for approval.

I have had this raised with me on a number of occasions, particularly in my own electorate. As we travel around and as we come up to Christmas it is becoming a bigger and bigger issue with the tighter economic situation that many families are confronting this Christmas. I just want to quote from a letter I received from a constituent out in the west of my electorate:

… Diesel versus petrol pricing—as diesel is a lesser refined product, it would mean a lower cost of manufacturing. Why is it then that the cost of diesel exceeds petrol by roughly $0.30 /lt?

He goes on to say:

There is little option to the man in the street to voice concern over this matter which is why I am putting forth my issue to you.

As their federal representative, I bring this issue to the Main Committee. This is a serious issue and I call on the Petrol Commissioner to say what he is doing about it. Is he doing anything or is he just watching the price disparity between diesel and petrol? This is something for the Petrol Commissioner and also something for the ACCC to look at. We do not want them to be toothless tigers. They must do something about the price disparity between diesel and petrol. (Time expired)