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

Once more I agree with the intent of this amendment, but there are things that I would have changed. I do not believe there is a reason that everybody in the public needs to know the commercial-in-confidence agreements. I would suggest—and I will listen to the debate—that it would probably be better if there were an ombudsman who was actually separate in the review of this matter. Part (c), which says, ‘the price or prices including the amount of any discount’, gives away, even within independents, the discount one person is getting over another person. I hope in the future that can be changed. I think it would be better if it said ‘the price or prices including whether there is a discount or other individual components that relate to a particular price’.

People should know whether someone is getting a discount, but whether they should know the exact discount is another issue. I have no problems with an individual ombudsman who could respect commercial-in-confidence agreements. If an ombudsman were to know about the discounts then that would give you another body to oversee this area. However, the intent of what Senator Fielding is trying to do is correct. He is addressing a major problem that everybody has when you call into an independent service station and say, ‘What can I do for you?’ and they say, ‘You can help me buy petrol cheaper than what they are selling it for. If I can buy petrol at what they are selling it for then that would be a great outcome.’

I ask Senator Fielding to give consideration to whether, rather than the public knowing, we could put in place an independent ombudsman to have a view of that. The public should know whether there is a discount and the circumstances of a discount, but to tell everybody on a public internet site the price of a product that everybody is buying could work against them. There could be occasions where even other majors could say, ‘Now I know what the margins are of all my competitors everywhere,’ or one independent in a small town will know what the margin is of the person up the street. I ask Senator Fielding if he could just give consideration to whether we could have an independent ombudsman with that oversight who has the ability to keep some sort of corporate veil in place so that the person down the street from you is not going to have you on toast and know each day what your margin is. I fully support what Senator Fielding is trying to do, I want to support him, but I wonder if he could give some consideration—maybe calling on the assistance of Senator Murray as well—to having a look at what the opinion is on whether we could get some form of screening so that not every detail of what a person is doing is out there for every person in the public to see.