Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Hansard source

I was listening to this debate and I just realised that there has not been a direct response to the opposition’s additional item 95ZEA ‘Directions by parliament to monitor prices, costs and profits of an industry’. We are talking about something here that is an essential resource that Australian families and small businesses cannot do without. We cannot do without petrol. If you ask people about this, you will find that a lot of them are concerned about the price, the cost and the profits of this essential resource. I would be interested to hear the minister’s explanation as to why he will not support such a thing knowing that most people out there are very concerned about this industry—the costs and the profits. I do not think we have really had an adequate response from the minister in regard to the proposal from the opposition. I will be interested to hear the response from him on this particular area.