By: Nick Tyrrell
Asked directly on ABC Radio Canberra this morning* whether the government was dodging the issue of Canberra’s fuel prices, Fenner MP Andrew Leigh, the Assistant Minister for Competition, did what he has now done five times in four days: he dodged it again.
It is the fifth time since last Friday that Dr Leigh has been asked, in one form or another, to say something meaningful about why Canberra pays more for petrol and diesel than any other capital city in the country. Five times, he has found a way to talk about almost anything else.
“Five times now Andrew Leigh has been asked about Canberra’s petrol prices, and five times he’s found a way to talk about something else. Today it was Peter Dutton and an election eighteen months ago. At some point Canberrans deserve an actual answer,” Mr Tyrrell said.
“I asked a simple question about petrol prices in Canberra this week. Andrew Leigh was asked the same simple question this morning. He responded by relitigating the last election, under a different Opposition Leader, about a policy that’s been rightly discarded. If that’s the best he’s got, he should save it for his next book,” Mr Tyrrell said.
Dr Leigh also pointed to global oil prices and the conflict involving Iran as the main driver of fuel costs. Mr Tyrrell said that didn’t explain Canberra’s problem.
“Nobody disputes that global oil prices are up. What Dr Leigh still can’t explain is why Canberra pays more than every other capital city in the country. If it was just the war in Iran, we wouldn’t be the most expensive city in Australia to fill a tank, we’d be exactly the same as everywhere else,” Mr Tyrrell said.
Mr Tyrrell has already written to the ACCC calling for Canberra’s fuel prices to be investigated. The Coalition’s newly announced Fuel Price Shield would separately deliver around 27 cents a litre in relief when global oil prices spike, but does nothing to address the extra premium Canberra motorists already pay every single day.
Mr Tyrrell said it was time Canberra’s Labor politicians had some guts and got behind real action on fuel prices for struggling families, instead of leaving it to the Coalition to act.
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* Recording link here, transcript below
260921 Leigh_ABC Mornings_Fuel Prices
Eddie Williams, ABC Canberra Andrew Leigh is the Federal Member for Fenner in the ACT and the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury. Dr Leigh, good morning.
Andrew Leigh, MP Good morning. Great to be with you.
Eddie Williams, ABC Canberra I want to ask you about petrol first. I was speaking with Liberal Senate candidate Nick Tyrrell a few minutes ago about the opposition’s proposal for a fuel price shield. Should the government be looking at doing something further when it comes to the fuel excess?
Andrew Leigh, MP We’re already taking significant action. We’ve increased the penalties for anti-competitive conduct. We have given the ACCC more resources to go after gouging and we’ve ensured that it is doing fuel price monitoring right across the country. They’ve already announced an inquiry into possible collusion by a couple of diesel retailers in regional Australia. This is a well-funded, well-armed regulator that has stronger tools than they’ve ever had before and are going after bad behaviour in the petrol market in the interest of Australian drivers.
Eddie Williams, ABC Canberra I asked Nick Tyrrell about prices in Canberra specifically, being the highest of Australian cities and whether any specific measures are needed here. This is what he said.
Nick Tyrrell The ACCC came out and said that the ACT or Canberra is the highest capital city for petrol prices in the country. And when you do the comparison and see that it’s higher than Darwin, you sort of start scratching your head and asking those same questions that have been asked countless times before. And, you know, I think when I wrote to the ACCC last week, I was a little bit disappointed to hear Andrew Leigh on radio on Friday morning. Ross Solly asked him four times if he thought something needs to be done about prices in Canberra and four times he dodged. And I think, you know, I am proud to be out there doing something about it, and I think the ACCC should come back to the government in Canberra with a wish list and say, well, if you did these things, you could, you now, stop topping the list for prices in the country.
Eddie Williams, ABC Canberra Is the government dodging the issue when it comes to fuel prices in Canberra?
Andrew Leigh, MP Not the least, and if only Nick Tyrrell spent as much time on policy development as he spends not listening to the exchange that I had with Ross last week, we’d be a better country for it. The fact is, we are resourcing the ACCC. We understand the main driver of fuel prices right now is those sky-high international oil prices caused by the war in Iran, and we’ve urged the United States and Israel to bring that conflict to an end. But it’s also about supporting cost of living. We’ve provided tax cuts to all Canberra taxpayers, opposed by the Liberals. Our wage rises, minimum wage and award employees, opposed to by the liberals. And of course if Nick Tyrrell and his team had had their way… 60% of Canberra public servants would have lost their job after the last election, which would have been a devastating blow to our ACT economy. So I don’t think the Liberals have any leg to stand on talking about cost of living in Canberra. They are the party that would have smashed the Canberran economy if they’d won the last election taking out 41,000 public service jobs from our city.