Andrew Murray (WA, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

I must just add a brief commentary to this debate. Quite plainly, the amendment does not stop volume discounting. Quite plainly, if you buy a million litres you are going to get a better price than if you buy 100 litres. The amendment does not stop that; it simply requires the supplier—of which there are very few, by the way, in Australia—to make their price list available to the thousands of retailers. So that is what will happen. If you buy a million litres you might get extended credit terms, a certain discount level and faster delivery. Those are the terms and conditions. If you buy 100 litres you will pay a lot more, wait a lot longer and probably have to pay cash. That is how it will be. This amendment is to do with the principle of laying out for customers like terms for like customers. So big people will still get much better terms and conditions than small people. That is the market. That is the world. That is how it operates.

I seldom refer to my own experience but I speak to you with the benefit of several decades of multinational retailing and an understanding of the principles that surround it. That does not prevent hard, capable negotiators from sitting down and bending the arms of the suppliers. It does not stop that at all. There is nothing in this that prohibits that. But this amendment requires that there be a properly available price list. It is required daily because that is the way the market is. The market in petroleum products—which by and large are commodities that are not highly differentiated—is priced on a daily basis. That is why the amendment says that it should be daily.

So I can understand the minister wishing to argue for a world of secret, backroom deals and cosy arrangements, because that is how it works at the present, but it is not a principle I or my party subscribe to. We believe that people who supply suppliers in a modern market economy must put up their price lists and must say what the terms and conditions are for varying types of customers. That is all this amendment is saying.