PETROL PRICE BOARDS

The Hon. P. CAICA (Colton) (14:32): My question is to the Minister for Business Services and Consumers. What plans are there to increase transparency and consumer protection in relation to petrol price boards?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:32): I thank the member for Colton for his question. There is going to be the introduction of an industry code to regulate the operation of petrol price boards before the end of this year. I have received a number of representations from individuals, either directly or through the Consumer and Business Services department, and also, might I add, from the RAA. The nature of the complaint is that there are many petrol sign boards around the place in Adelaide at the present time where the price of the fuel that is advertised on the price board is actually the discounted price, not the bowser price of fuel.

What this means is that a person driving by that service station does not have the opportunity to assess the actual bowser price of the fuel in that service station compared with other offerings that might be nearby and, therefore, cannot compare apples with apples, and this of course brings us into the whole question about voucher schemes and so forth. Many people have found this confusing. I know that a very prominent person who joined the ABC does not seem to find it confusing and tweets constantly that he is not confused; but there are other people out there, many of them elderly people, who are confused by this process.

So, what we are going to do is to say that bait pricing in the form of misrepresentative advertising of the bowser price of fuel will have to cease and that the non-discounted price of the fuel will be the only price which can be the headline price appearing on these signboards. However, there is no reason that a discount cannot be offered, for example, to voucher holders, but that would have to be conveyed to the consumer in a way other than representing the discounted price as being the price for fuel available to anybody who drives into that station.

Members of parliament would be aware that some of the larger retail chains have, of course, their own service stations, and these chains regularly advertise their price with 4¢, 5¢ or 8¢ off the actual bowser price. That means that, to the uninformed consumer or the person trying to make a swift split-second decision, they appear to be selling fuel at a price which is cheaper than that of the independent retailers who, of course, are not involved in the same process.

What is going to have to happen is that the price boards will not have to change but the numbers on them will have to be changed to be representative of the bowser price. There will be significant penalties for noncompliance and I am confident, as a result of the feedback we have had, that this will be well supported and appreciated by the community.