Mr BARRETT - 2014-10-21
We recently held a fuel price summit, and some measures were taken by the Northern Territory government to promote price competition in the Northern Territory. Would you please give us an update on how that is going?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Blain for his question. The member for Blain, as parliamentary secretary for Business, has been working tirelessly in this area to address issues around the cost of living. One of those issues is fuel prices. Cost of living pressures have existed in the Territory for many a long year, and little was done about them until 25 August 2012.
This year our budget came out, and I commend the minister for Lands and Planning for putting out the biggest land release strategy we have ever seen in the Northern Territory, 6500 blocks of land, $130m – $50m for industrial land release.
These are interventions putting downward pressure on prices in the Northern Territory, one being petrol. I congratulate Dr Harry on raising these issues as the Country Liberals candidate in the seat of Casuarina. He put a lot of pressure on the petrol companies, supported intently by institutions such as the NT News, Channel 9, ABC, Mix and so forth. I commend those institutions for getting on the bandwagon, because, collectively, we have put pressure on fuel companies to drive prices down.
Yes, we held a fuel price summit because one of the technical issues about fuel is understanding why the price is the way it is.
Ms Walker: It was a bit of a non-event, that one.
Ms Lawrie interjecting.
Mr GILES: I know the opposition does not understand this and did not take action when they were in government. I know in 2005 they had the Parry report done, and I know when the Leader of the Opposition was the Treasurer she did not do anything about fuel, but we are now. Now the Casuarina by-election is over, we will continue to address fuel prices, most notably with the fuel price disclosure bill the Attorney-General will be talking about later today.
The fuel price summit sought to find information, but did not get the information I wanted it to achieve. I wanted to find out the exact price of transportation of fuel in the Northern Territory. We generally know the price from Singapore, the price of shipping, the Vopak price and the TGP. We mostly understand the retail mark-ups, but we do not know the depot charges, the charges from the terminal to the depot and from the depot to the retail outlets. They are some of the areas we need to find out about, but information was not forthcoming. It was good to get some information out, but more needs to be forthcoming. We are still being gouged.
Having said that, we support free market enterprise, but government sometimes has to intervene to be able to encourage the reduction in prices, so I thank all those who participated in the summit. I thank the member for Blain for the hard work he has been doing.
There is more work to be done in this area, but I note that companies such as United are starting to become price leaders. I note their prices were 20c lower at Acacia the other day; I think prices are now about $1.63.9 for E10 and $1.66 or $1.67 for unleaded, so there is movement. We will continue to work in this area to drive down the cost of living, where Labor did not.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Blain for his question. The member for Blain, as parliamentary secretary for Business, has been working tirelessly in this area to address issues around the cost of living. One of those issues is fuel prices. Cost of living pressures have existed in the Territory for many a long year, and little was done about them until 25 August 2012.
This year our budget came out, and I commend the minister for Lands and Planning for putting out the biggest land release strategy we have ever seen in the Northern Territory, 6500 blocks of land, $130m – $50m for industrial land release.
These are interventions putting downward pressure on prices in the Northern Territory, one being petrol. I congratulate Dr Harry on raising these issues as the Country Liberals candidate in the seat of Casuarina. He put a lot of pressure on the petrol companies, supported intently by institutions such as the NT News, Channel 9, ABC, Mix and so forth. I commend those institutions for getting on the bandwagon, because, collectively, we have put pressure on fuel companies to drive prices down.
Yes, we held a fuel price summit because one of the technical issues about fuel is understanding why the price is the way it is.
Ms Walker: It was a bit of a non-event, that one.
Ms Lawrie interjecting.
Mr GILES: I know the opposition does not understand this and did not take action when they were in government. I know in 2005 they had the Parry report done, and I know when the Leader of the Opposition was the Treasurer she did not do anything about fuel, but we are now. Now the Casuarina by-election is over, we will continue to address fuel prices, most notably with the fuel price disclosure bill the Attorney-General will be talking about later today.
The fuel price summit sought to find information, but did not get the information I wanted it to achieve. I wanted to find out the exact price of transportation of fuel in the Northern Territory. We generally know the price from Singapore, the price of shipping, the Vopak price and the TGP. We mostly understand the retail mark-ups, but we do not know the depot charges, the charges from the terminal to the depot and from the depot to the retail outlets. They are some of the areas we need to find out about, but information was not forthcoming. It was good to get some information out, but more needs to be forthcoming. We are still being gouged.
Having said that, we support free market enterprise, but government sometimes has to intervene to be able to encourage the reduction in prices, so I thank all those who participated in the summit. I thank the member for Blain for the hard work he has been doing.
There is more work to be done in this area, but I note that companies such as United are starting to become price leaders. I note their prices were 20c lower at Acacia the other day; I think prices are now about $1.63.9 for E10 and $1.66 or $1.67 for unleaded, so there is movement. We will continue to work in this area to drive down the cost of living, where Labor did not.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016