Mr TRUSS (2:16 PM) —My question is to the Prime Minister. Is the Prime Minister aware of the Queensland government’s investigation into the Fuelwatch scheme headed by the now state Treasurer, Andrew Fraser? Why has the Prime Minister decided to introduce Fuelwatch across Australia after Queensland Premier Anna Bligh declared that ‘fuel prices would generally not be lower under the scheme’ and that ‘the scheme would be costly to establish and operate’ and ‘would have no tangible benefits to the community’?

Mr RUDD (Prime Minister) —I thank the honourable member for his question. There has been widespread community support for the government’s approach on this, starting with the leader of the New South Wales Liberal Party, Barry O’Farrell, who said that Fuelwatch would put motorists, not the oil companies, back in charge. That is before you go on to the New South Wales Liberal opposition fair trading spokeswoman, Catherine Cusack, who says that Labor has shown leadership on this question. The CEO of Choice magazine, Peter Kell, says that Choice would strongly support—

Mr Truss —Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. My point of order is in relation to relevance. This was a question—

The SPEAKER —Order! The leader of the National Party will resume his seat. The Prime Minister is responding to the question.

Mr RUDD —Choice magazine said that they would strongly support the introduction of a national scheme based on the WA FuelWatch model by the government. Then the NRMA president, Alan Evans, said—

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr RUDD —Of course all these folk are irrelevant to the general debate, I presume! The President of the NRMA says:

Then you have David Moir, Executive Manager Advocacy, RACWA, who says:

that is, the petrol price inquiry—

If you look at this range of comments it is quite clear that there is a huge array of support for the scheme across the country.

As I said in response to a question yesterday, there is obviously going to be conflicting information and advice on this. We understand that. We said that before, we said it again yesterday and I will say again today. That is because we are moving in an area where the Liberal state government of Western Australia decided to move in the year 2000 and then subsequent to that we have had recommendations from these bodies for this action to be taken nationally. We have always said that there is no silver bullet on petrol, but we have also said that, if you look at the evidence produced in this lengthy inquiry of several hundred pages, commissioned by the member for Higgins—he who seeks to return, we think, to the frontbench, depending on whether he beats the member for Mayo to the frontbench—if you look at page 247 of this report and its conclusions on the net impact on price, which is over the period survey of 2001-07 a net impact on price of 1.9 cents per litre less, then this provides a basis for a reasonable course of action. But, as we said on the day that we launched this policy, it does not represent a silver bullet. It does, however, help competition policy at the margins.