Fuel Price Monitoring

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (16:03): My question is to the Attorney-General. How has the process of data aggregation by the private third party selected to administer the government's 30-minute fuel pricing system been vertically separated from the commercial providers of fuel price information?

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Planning and Local Government) (16:04): I thank the member for the question. As members know, we introduced a mandatory reporting in relation to fuel pricing. All retailers in South Australia now have to do that and they are subject to a significant fine if they fail to do so within a 30-minute time line. That is being regulated and policed by the commissioner for consumer services. Regular updates have been given to this house as to the success of that trial that we have undertaken.

One of the aspects of that was the selection of and appointment of the data aggregator, which ultimately I have reported to the house was the same company that was used by the Queensland Labor government for an initiative that they had introduced before that time. I don't have with me the particulars of the detail of the contract of their employment, and I have just checked; I don't have any particulars of that. But I am happy to take on notice the particulars that the member seeks. But she raises the point, I think, that it's important that the information that is collated and retained for the purposes of compliance with this new law is one which is not to be confused with or accessed by others for any other commercial purpose.

These data aggregators do have a number of clients. If we, as a government, are one of them, then they have an obligation within the terms of those contracts to both comply with what they are to do for us, and that includes the retrieval and disposal of data, and not to overlap that or have access to other clients that other clients may be contracting for their purposes in the aggregation of data. So I will check the particulars of the contract and, if I am able to provide that to the member and to the house, I will do so.