Labor's proposed 'oil code' to control discounting of fuel prices would be a disaster, Treasurer Peter Costello claims.
Opposition leader Kim Beazley's 'Plan for Fuel' promises a maximum wholesale price for fuel and protection for independent fuel retailers.
Beazley says this would ensure that discounting was spread across all outlets, and not just used by oil companies to attack independents' marketshare.
The party would use changes to the
Trade Practices Act to alter the onus of proof about predatory pricing from independents to oil companies.
But Costello says the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has plenty of power to investigate predatory pricing and the Beazley proposal would just lead to higher prices at the pump.
He says the important point missing in the Beazley plan is any commitment for no new taxes on fuel.
The Coalition, Costello contends, has done the most to reduce pump prices by:
- abolishing the indexation of fuel excise (from last February)
- introducing the diesel grant to cut diesel prices for heavy trucks by 18.5 cents a litre
- making the GST component on fuel a tax credit for businesses (effectively a 10% discount on business fuel use)
- introducing the fuel subsidy scheme for regional fuel outlets of up to 2 cents a litre.