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

That is, the acts we are replacing, Senator Joyce, before you get too excited. It is not covered by these acts that we are replacing, because the supermarket chains Coles and Woolworths are not covered by those acts. The rules under the legislation which exists today are inconsistent and unfair for market participants, and that is not good for anyone in the industry.

The Oilcode, which will be introduced with this legislation as a mandatory industry code under the Trade Practices Act, will finally bring the whole industry into a common regulatory regime with better protections for market participants and better protections for consumers. We are on the record as saying there is more that can be done and we have extracted as many concessions as we can from the government in the circumstances towards that end. The onus is on the government now to deliver in relation to those matters. But the Oilcode will improve protections available to commission agents and—wait for it—independent operators, who do not have the protections available to franchisees under the current arrangements. So we are not taking anything away from the independent operators by supporting this legislation; we are actually adding to the regime—not on the terms that we would prefer, but in this case we are not prepared to stand in the way—