Mr TRUSS (Minister for Transport and Regional Services) (3:53 PM) —I note the contribution of the honourable member for Batman to the debate on the importance of providing fuel to our industry and to transport at an affordable and reliable price. Unfortunately, the reality is that the honourable member for Batman is full of criticism but not terribly many solutions.

As a farmer and as someone who lives in a regional area, I know as well as anyone the real impact of rising fuel prices on the household budget. It affects every family in Australia. It means that money that would otherwise be available to spend on things that might be a family priority needs to be used to power the family motor vehicle or undertake other tasks in the region. It affects some industries more than others. Obviously, the transport sector faces increased costs, some of which are being passed on by special fuel surcharges. It affects those people who need a lot of energy to undertake their daily work. That includes farmers and quite a lot of people in industry. It also affects the tourism industry, particularly in areas where there is a dependence on the motoring public. All of that clearly has implications that we would prefer not occur. All Australians want lower fuel prices.

It is true—as the honourable member for Batman acknowledged—that we are a significant exporter of energy, so in relation to the balance sheet there have also been some positives associated with the higher price of energy around the world. Very little of that flows directly to the person who is pulling up at the petrol station, to compensate for the higher cost associated with filling their tanks.

As the member for Rankin has said on a number of occasions, and as was confirmed today by the member for Batman, Australia’s record petrol prices have one cause and one cause only—that is, high world oil prices. The Prime Minister and the Treasurer have said that. The government have not been running away from that issue. We have not sought to not tell the Australian people what the facts are; we have done precisely the opposite. Fortunately, there is a degree of unanimity around the place. There is the odd witchdoctor or conspiracy theory but in reality most people acknowledge—and most people at home appreciate—that this is an issue largely outside the control of a country like Australia.

Graeme Samuel, from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, added another important comment when he said:

He makes the very valid point that, even if we were to try and artificially manipulate the prices in this country, the effect would be one of there being no available fuel in this country, because people would take the economic answer, the best financial solution for them, and export it to other parts of the world. So petrol prices in Australia are closely linked to international prices because our refiners have the option to sell it anywhere they choose in the world.

There has been criticism during question time—and this was briefly alluded to by the honourable member for Batman—that perhaps the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission should do more to somehow or other reduce the price of fuel. It is not correct to say that the ACCC does not monitor petrol prices. In fact, I am told that it monitors petrol, diesel and auto LPG prices at around 4,000 sites across Australia. The ACCC can also conduct additional random monitoring in remote areas and investigate complaints about price changes. This is not about a lack of information; we all know that the price of fuel has gone up. What we would like to see are ways to effectively address the cost of fuel.

It is also important to know that the ACCC is equipped to take action under the Trade Practices Act if there is evidence of anticompetitive behaviour, including undertaking informal monitoring, investigations and court cases in the petroleum area as appropriate. For example, the ACCC has instituted proceedings against 16 respondents, alleging a number of competitors in the Ballarat region were part of a longstanding arrangement to fix retail petrol prices. On 17 March 2005, the Federal Court imposed penalties totalling $23 million in response to these allegations. So the ACCC not only has the power; it has exercised it, and very significant penalties have been imposed.

I encourage anyone who has evidence of illegal practices within the Australian fuel retail, wholesale or refining sector to report it to the ACCC. Labor should put up or shut up if they believe that there is evidence of price manipulation or ineffective competition in the marketplace. The member for Rankin—who is not just an ordinary backbencher of the Labor Party; he happens to be chairman of the federal Labor caucus economic committee, so presumably he is speaking with some kind of economic authority from the other side—has written:

The opposition has effectively ruled out the conspiracy theories and the arguments about a lack of transparency. It has ruled out all those things. So it is unfortunate that, from time to time, we get this crass attempt to break out on those sorts of issues and seek to blame people who cannot reasonably be held responsible.

Mr Martin Ferguson —We didn’t seek to do that, Warren.

Mr TRUSS —You have done it, whether you sought to do it or not. People on your side have certainly been very active in so doing.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER (Hon. IR Causley)—Order! We do not need a debate across the table.

Mr TRUSS —Australia’s retail petrol prices remain amongst the lowest in the developed countries. Again, I know that is no comfort to people who are pulling up at a petrol station. They think the price is too high and the fact that ours is the fourth-cheapest price amongst the 30 OECD countries is of little comfort. The United Kingdom pays around twice the price for petrol that we do. According to the International Energy Association, Australia has the fourth-lowest fuel taxation in any OECD country and, consequently, the fourth-lowest petrol prices. So it is a fact that, even though our prices are high, much of the rest of the world has to endure an even greater burden.

One element that is frequently brought into focus when people are concerned about the cost of petrol is the level of fuel taxes. That has not been such a strong theme this time, because the public also know that this government has done more than any other to stop the increase in fuel prices as a result of excise. That is not true for those opposite. For the record, it needs to be said that, when the Hawke Labor government was elected on 5 March 1983, federal petrol excise stood at just 6.155c a litre. From that time on, there has been a ruthless march upwards in excise levels. Within three years, Labor had doubled the excise figure to 15.776c a litre. Within another year, it had trebled to 19.2c a litre. And then who can forget the infamous Keating budget of 1993, where Labor promised it would not increase taxes but petrol went up another 3c a litre. In fact, in the 13 years of Labor, fuel excise went up by 590 per cent—that is, 15 per cent a year for 13 years compound. They were great taxers. When Labor left office in March 1996, the fuel excise stood at 36.325c a litre.

So it is pretty hypocritical when we hear people on the opposite side say that their answer is a new theory to take 3c or 4c a litre off the price of fuel. The reality is that Labor have never cut fuel excise levels. They have an appalling record of massively increasing those levels.

Mr Crean interjecting—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER —The member for Hotham has already been warned.

Mr TRUSS —And do not forget that the current Leader of the Opposition was the Minister for Finance when many of those increases were put in place. Contrast that with what this government has done. We have frozen the excise level. It has not gone up for four years. We also reduced excise significantly when we introduced the new tax system, and then a further 1.8c a litre a little time later. This has been a government that, for the first time ever, has been out there cutting taxes on fuel, and that is almost unprecedented in our national history.

There is one tax that goes up when fuel prices go up—that is, the GST. Of course, the full impact of the GST—the full benefits of that price increase—goes back to the states. So if anybody has a capacity to cut taxes, to reduce the cost of fuel, it is obviously the states.

Mr Crean interjecting—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER —The member for Hotham will remove himself from the House under standing order 94(a).

The member for Hotham then left the chamber.

Mr TRUSS —They could accept some kind of a freeze on GST, if they chose to do so—I am not expecting that they will. It is also true to say that business users get their GST refunded for the fuel they use for business purposes. The change in taxation policy makes a huge difference to the price of fuel, and I think it is part of the reason why the public have been a little more understanding about the current price than they have been in the past.

To put this into some kind of context, a family who uses 50 litres of petrol a week is now saving $174 a year in excise as a result of the changes that we have made. If Labor had still been in office and there had been no change to the tax system, the fuel excise now would be 52.8c a litre, or 38 per cent higher than it is. So Labor comes into this debate with a fair bit of history, with a fair bit of dirty linen.

I note that the honourable member for Batman, in a very important contribution to the debate, spoke about the need for us to look towards alternative fuels. I agree absolutely that we need to consider what other options are available. Of course, as prices go up, all of these other options become economically more attractive. One area where again the Labor Party’s record does not stand up to their current visionary claims is in relation to ethanol and biodiesel. They have organised a systematic campaign to vilify ethanol as a fuel.

This burgeoning industry has been effectively destroyed in its infancy by outrageous statements made by the opposition. Their dishonesty and the way in which they have peddled stories about engine failure and the like have seriously damaged the growth of the ethanol industry around Australia. It has been left to the government to try and foster this industry. We have provided very substantial financial support for the ethanol industry. We have indicated that we want 350 million litres of ethanol to be used in Australia by 2010. That is a pretty modest target, yet we have gone backwards over a considerable period of that time because of the vilification of biofuels by the opposition.

Mr Katter interjecting—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER —The member for Kennedy!

Mr TRUSS —If the opposition want to make a constructive contribution, why don’t they start supporting ethanol and biodiesel?

Mr Martin Ferguson interjecting—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER —The member for Batman has had his 15 minutes.

Mr TRUSS —Why don’t they give us a chance to substitute renewable fuels for oil and the other fuel mixes that we have at the present time? I acknowledge that there will be a future role for gas, hydrogen and who knows what else in powering motor vehicles in Australia. A lot of that technology is not yet there. I understand that the honourable member for Capricornia is about to speak, so she might like to explain why the Labor Party are so opposed to the shale oil developments in her own electorate. There are plenty of options around for us to provide an opportunity to develop domestic, home-grown renewable and other fuels to power our industry into the future.

I do not believe that the solution is as suggested by the former President of the ALP and the member for Fremantle, Carmen Lawrence, when she addressed a large rally in Western Australia last year and advocated $2.50 a litre as the price of petrol—that we try to force people off the road by charging outrageous prices for petrol. In fact, that $2.50 in today’s terms would probably be close to $4 a litre. Now that is not a reasonable approach to take. The ALP’s approach to fuel pricing 12 months ago, ‘Oil: living with less’, was an irresponsible approach. It tears away at the credibility of the Labor Party and their crocodile tears in relation to fuel prices at the present time.

I think we can work constructively as the government and as a community to encourage alternative fuels, to seek to deliver the oil that we have in the most efficient and effective way, to use our energy more sparingly so that it can be available to share with future generations and also to make a genuine effort towards developing new energy technologies and growing the ones we already have such as biodiesel and ethanol. So stop criticising this; give it a go and it can make a contribution. Let me say that the fuel companies should follow as well. If they want to deliver cheaper fuel than at present, they should add some ethanol, because it is cheaper than oil. (Time expired)