Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Fielding, for your question. The Rudd Labor government is acutely aware of the impact of higher petrol prices in the community, particularly the continuing impact of the increasing cost of oil in the Asian market, against which we are benchmarked. There is considerable consumer frustration about higher petrol prices, price fluctuations and the perceived lack of transparency in prices. The Rudd government has been doing everything to put downward pressure on petrol prices to ease the cost of living pressures on working families. That is part of and is in tandem with our five-point plan to win the fight on inflation. On previous occasions I have talked about the importance of winning the fight on inflation. The Rudd Labor government is committed to promoting further competition and transparency in the Australian petroleum market.

On 16 February 2008, the Minister for Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs, my colleague Mr Bowen, announced that Mr Pat Walker would be the government’s nominee for the new role of petrol commissioner within the ACCC. The minister will be asking the ACCC and the petrol commissioner to have a renewed focus on the informal monitoring of LPG and diesel prices and to advise him on whether any further powers in this area are necessary or desirable for the ACCC. In response to recent ACCC reports on petrol prices, the government have firstly given the ACCC the power to conduct formal petrol price monitoring and have it provide an annual report on its price monitoring. They have tasked the ACCC with exploring whether there are any infrastructure bottlenecks in the wholesale petrol market through an audit and ongoing monitoring of terminals and facilities and continuing to look seriously at the options raised by the ACCC, including measures to increase retail price transparency and competition.