Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Transport) Share this | Hansard source

I will preface my comments with a slight proviso. I would like the minister to tell me it is not the case that the ACCC already monitors petrol prices and that this amendment would therefore slightly expand the monitoring role to other commodities that might be described as ‘petroleum products’. That would potentially be the nature of the change, depending on the interpretation of the words ‘petroleum products’. If that is the case, I do not think we will be doing any great harm in passing this amendment. It would have been better if the committee had supported Labor’s amendment, which would have empowered the parliament to authorise a thorough investigation by the ACCC into petroleum products. I am of course disappointed that none of the coalition senators was prepared to support that proposal, and I am disappointed that the Treasurer chose not to exercise his powers to hold such an inquiry in all the time that he has been Treasurer, as he could have done under the legislation. So, on the understanding that the impact would potentially be to extend that monitoring process to a range of products beyond petrol—and I am not sure how widely the term ‘petroleum products’ would be interpreted—we do not think this amendment would do any great harm.