Fuel Price Monitoring

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (14:41): Supplementary: just before I do that, I should remind the Attorney-General that there were no recommendations from the report. My question is: why does the Attorney-General believe compliance costs of a 24-hour price guarantee will be higher, given that the Productivity Commission states estimates provided by retailers are, and I quote, 'inherently imprecise and need to be treated with caution'?

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General) (14:41): They are all perfectly valid comments in the context of which they are in the report. I'm sorry if I have not recorded it as options 1 and 2, rather than recommendations 1 and 2. For members' benefit, I am referring to the options that have been identified by the Productivity Commission. We have considered those and we think that as the Queensland Labor government have introduced and persisted with their model it is the one to follow.

Essentially, it will work on the basis that every retail outlet by the purposes of the proposed legislation will be required to provide to the government the price of their fuel and within 30 minutes of any change of that price. That then becomes in an aggregate. Obviously, it was proposed to go out to tender for an aggregate body, if it is the will of the parliament to pass this legislation. There are a number now operating, including in Queensland, who could tender for that. That data is then in a form that the consumer can be confident is accurate and timely and it's able to be provided for the base of any source, app, website or mechanism consumers then choose. I think, in Queensland at the moment, there are some 11 different apps that are available—processes by which a consumer can seek to have that.

It's the government's view that, supported by the data and work that has been done by the Productivity Commission, this option will provide an opportunity for cheaper fuel prices, choice to the consumer, and timely and accurate data that they can rely on to go and identify where they can buy fuel anywhere in South Australia—the nearest town, nearest suburb or nearest street—for their benefit.