Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

And I might move to Senator Brown’s comments about the petrol market in Tasmania. It confounds me how little the Greens know about what is going on in their own state, particularly in relation to a range of issues we saw during the discussion on marine protected areas—in fact, the lack of engagement from the Greens in relation to marine protected areas surprised me. I heard in my conversations with the fishing industry, with whom we work very closely, that they never met with the Greens. The Greens did not seek a meeting with the fishing industry in relation to marine protected areas.

In relation to fuel sales, it has only recently been announced that Mobil sold all its sites in Tasmania to an independent, to United. So there has been a significant change in the market in Tasmania in favour of the independent sector. I think one of the largest petrol stations in my home town of Devonport, which sells fuel from Ampol Caltex, is a privately owned, independent service station. In relation to the rostering arrangements, that particular business took the opportunity to open 24 hours, seven days a week, and that is one of the things that has made it a successful business. It has taken advantage of the operation of the market. In fact, in the last two years, it has been one of the Prime Minister’s employers of the year for employing people with disabilities or people with return-to-work issues.

The Greens get up in this place to make comments about what is happening in their own state—quite sadly, uninformed statements. It is perhaps pertinent that Senator Brown has got up and made those uninformed statements on a day when parliament is broadcast and there is an opportunity to let people in my home state know that there are inconsistencies in the comments that the Greens put on the record. I also refer to the comments that Senator Milne made about her being in regional or rural Australia from the vantage of the capital city, in the centre of Hobart.

Commenting on the protection of independents: the mandatory Oilcode already contains provisions which will prevent wholesale suppliers from unreasonably refusing supply. That provision is currently in the legislation and provides the support that Senator Joyce in particular is looking for in relation to independents. If you consider the comments that I have made about where things are going in Tasmania, you will see there are movements in the retail sale of petroleum in regional Australia, in particular regional Tasmania, towards opportunities for independents and independent supply. In fact, the price of fuel in Hobart is very low at the moment, based on the competition that is being put out by the supermarkets and also on the entry into the market of the independent sector through United. That has made a significant difference to the price of fuel.

In relation to government support for the small business sector, as we discussed earlier in this debate, the government has already announced its intention to strengthen section 46 and it is very keen to see that legislation introduced as soon as the Dawson bill has passed through the parliament. We hope we can do this in a timely manner. We have already had one crack at it. We would like to see that done so that we can get those protections in place. We have a very clear and obvious view that we would like to see measures such as a small business capacity for collective bargaining. That is quite clearly contained in the provisions of the legislation that we have brought to this place once before. Obviously, we have a position on that and we would like to see it passed. That is our intention: we would like to see that passed. So I think it is a bit disingenuous for people to get up in this place to talk about our lack of support or otherwise for small business or for regional Australia.

One of the concerns that I would have about this amendment of Senator Joyce’s is that there is going to be a significant cost attached to monitoring and processing this whole deal. And guess who is going to pay? Regional Australia will pay the cost or the independent sector will pay the cost, because it is going to be applied, quite reasonably, to them. So much for the effect of trying to keep fuel prices down, which we have talked about in this place today! There is going to be a negative impact on that through the very significant red tape that will be tied around the proposals, such as those being discussed by Senator Joyce in this particular amendment, particularly in a climate where we are looking to reduce the amount of red tape that applies to the overall market. So there are some pretty significant questions that need to be answered in relation to this.

Senator O’Brien has raised, quite correctly, some of the very practical matters in relation to the operation and allocation of market share through the 25 per cent of the volume of fuel proposal that has been included by Senator Joyce in this amendment, but I think that it goes even deeper than that. There is no question that the independent sector will be made less competitive by a process such as this, because it will pay the cost. The cost of monitoring and the cost of application and the cost of managing this whole process will be applied, quite reasonably, to the independent sector. That is just a fact of business.

If, as Senator Joyce is implying, this is largely about small country towns in regional Australia, then the effect of this is that he will be imposing additional costs on fuel in those small country towns. I know that is not something that he wants to do—I do not apply any motive to him in that respect—but, in the context of this amendment, there are a range of issues that should have been much better thought out. I do not think that they were explained to either Senator O’Brien or the chamber effectively enough when he was putting this particular amendment to the committee.

So the government will not be supporting—and the opposition has expressed its opposition—this particular amendment. I think Senator Joyce already understood that that might be the case, but obviously he is intending to continue with his amendment. It is quite obvious that there is a range of practical and also business based issues that need to be resolved for this proposal to be effective and, quite frankly, I do not think that they are resolvable, particularly some of the issues that Senator O’Brien has raised in relation to allocation of the 25 per cent quotas. I think that really does create some very difficult situations. Senator Joyce really should have given some deeper consideration to the particular elements of this amendment before it was brought before the chamber.