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

I reject the proposition that this bill ‘takes away any restrictions on the big end of town’, as it was characterised. As I have said ad nauseam, and as we have been saying for many years, the sites act and the franchise act that were brought in in 1980 no longer have any relevance to this industry. It is a fact that the discount petroleum retailing initiatives of both Coles and Woolworths have now captured some 50 per cent of the market, because these acts are so redundant and irrelevant that they have been—to use a common parlance—‘got around’ by Coles and Woolworths. Of course, consumers have been very significant beneficiaries of the entry of Coles and Woolworths into petrol retailing. That is why they have captured such a large market share: because of their capacity to bring lower prices to consumers. If there is one thing we should all believe in it is ensuring that consumers get the lowest possible prices, so, to that extent, the entry of Coles and Woolworths has brought that about in a very significant way.

They have demonstrated in quite a dramatic fashion how utterly redundant these two pieces of legislation are: an old-fashioned act trying to restrict the number of sites which can be operated directly, which clearly does not work; and a franchise act which governs only one form of relationship between an oil major and a retailer. This proposition is to remove those two old acts, which do not affect Coles and Woolies one way or the other, and bring in an Oilcode which very properly and clearly sets out the appropriate relationships that should exist under the Trade Practices Act for retailers and wholesalers. These are very important and timely measures. But to use this vehicle for a piecemeal amendment of the Trade Practices Act generally is not appropriate.

We have said repeatedly that amendments to the Trade Practices Act should be holistic; they should be comprehensive; they should be made in the light of the very significant and considered report by the former Mr Justice Dawson; they should be balanced; and they should take account of the needs of medium to larger businesses in this country so that they can operate profitably to the benefit of all of us as well as the needs of small business. That is what the package does, and we look forward to the opportunity to pass it. But we are not going to debate it in a piecemeal fashion or tack it on to the end of a very specific initiative to improve petrol retailing in this country.