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

Can I just assure the opposition that, on the basis of the advice that I have, it is the case that the ACCC already does have the requisite powers to monitor the pricing of all petroleum products, not just petrol—diesel and LPG, and all the rest of it, are covered. When Graeme Samuel, in his many statements, makes the point that there is that monitoring going on, he is referring to all petroleum products. On the basis of our satisfaction that section 155 of the Trade Practices Act already gives the ACCC the power to take requisite action to instigate an investigation if it believes that there is any anticompetitive conduct, conduct that has come to its attention as a result of the monitoring that it does, we cannot support this amendment.

We do not think it is an appropriate amendment. We think the powers that are sought by the passage of this amendment already exist. I think it is clear from other statements made by Mr Samuel as the requisite authority that, as he said—and I have read some of his evidence to our current Senate committee of inquiry—the ACCC really do not believe that there is, nor do they have evidence of, any widespread corruption, illegal conduct et cetera.

This is an industry—and we were just discussing this—where it is amazing how everybody knows, almost on a daily basis, the prices being charged for these products. If you asked anybody in the street, they would certainly know the price of a litre of petrol but they would be hard-pressed to know the price of a litre of beer or a litre of milk. So there is an extraordinary focus on this issue but extraordinary transparency in terms of retail pricing.

As I say, we think that the ACCC, really, because of this public interest in it, is exercising properly its current responsibilities with respect to price monitoring. It has the requisite powers to investigate and there have been, already, a couple of actions taken by the ACCC of its own volition. So we think this is an unnecessary amendment and one that we cannot support.