Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

The government does not believe it appropriate that a house of the parliament or a committee of the parliament should have the authority to give the ACCC written directions. That is not at all appropriate. Apart from that, we do not think that anything will be gained by this particular exercise. This is all about petrol pricing. On the one hand, we supported having yet another inquiry by a Senate committee into the whole issue but, as I noted at the time, I think that makes 47 inquiries of one kind or another into petrol pricing in the last 20-odd years. It is probably the most inquired-into industry. I think Graeme Samuel himself, on behalf of the ACCC, has said that there have been any number of inquiries into this matter which have not revealed any proof of the wild accusations which are often made about this industry. We all look forward to seeing what the Senate economics committee comes up with, whether it finds anything different from the other 46 inquiries, but we doubt it very much. In any event, we cannot support a proposal that empowers committees of the parliament to direct the commission in the exercise of its authority.