Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

What we will have to do is get a copy of section 95A of the Trade Practices Act. There is a list of products in that section. I can see the minister has now got that list to have a look over it; I am trying to dig it up from my office as well. Obviously, this is a technical amendment. The minister might confirm whether petroleum products are in that list; I believe they are not, and that is the reason this amendment has been sought.

Obviously I do not pretend to be a bard of law but, if there is already the ability to monitor petroleum products, then there should be no problem in supporting this, because all you are really doing is reinforcing the position that is there. And I have here—thank you very much, Senator Murray—a copy of the act and I see that, at section 95A, it says that, for price surveillance:

“goods” includes:

(a)

ships, aircraft and other vehicles; and

(b)

animals, including fish; and

(c)

minerals, trees and crops, whether on, under or attached to land or not; and

(d)

water; and

(e)

gas and electricity.

So, we see that petroleum products are not there. We want to put petroleum products on that list, to give greater effect to part VIIA—Prices Surveillance. That will give us, over a period of time, greater powers for monitoring petroleum products. That is why this technical amendment has been asked for and, seeing as petroleum products are not listed in 95A, as just described, I ask the committee to consider whether that amendment should be allowed.