Capricornia’s Fuel Price Watch or Fuel Price Furphy?

Is the Member for Capricornia trying to pull the wool over the eyes of voters with regards to fuel watch or is it a case of the Boy who cried wolf?

During the QLD election campaign, Michelle Landry and Bruce Young advised they had submitted a joint submission to the ACCC to investigate fuel prices in Rockhampton and Yeppoon (TMB 16/01/2015).

The ACCC published an annual report on the investigation into fuel prices one month prior in December, which included Rockhampton, Yeppoon and 34 other regional towns. It doesn’t make sense that the ACCC would exclude Rockhampton and Yeppoon for their quarterly reports. Did Landry really have to fight to get our area included? It certainly does not appear that way. Some would call that a furphy.

Ms. Landry now has a petition to include Capricornia in fuel watch studies by the ACCC. The quarterly reports and annual report already include regional areas including towns in Capricornia. The ACCC’s report and fact sheet on regional pricing, clearly state the reasons for price disparity in the regions. Why is Ms. Landry asking constituents to sign a petition for work already being undertaken by the ACCC, instead of addressing the key issues for price disparity? Has Ms. Landry read these reports and is she across the issues for the reasons of price disparity? It appears she is not; otherwise, the petition would be a pointless venture. Why is Ms. Landry not putting forward solutions to bring prices down, or working with other regional MPs to come up with solutions based on the ACCC’s research? There is very little disparity across all regional prices, with the exception of Whitsundays, Mackay, Maryborough and Gympie on the lower end and Gold Coast, Miles, Longreach and Mt Isa at the upper end of the scale.

Did Ms. Landry address fuel prices with Minister Billson when he visited Rockhampton and push him to act on the reasons detailed for price disparity for regions? Ms. Landry’s comments around Minister Billson’s visit to Rockhampton were “Having the Minister here within six days of the budget shows just how important our local mum and dad businesses are to the local economy,” (TMB 15 May, 2015). If the Member for Capricornia is serious, she would have discussed the impact of fuel costs, such as on Ms. Jackson’s small business and urged the Minister to act upon the ACCC findings and put forward workable solutions.

It appears that Ms. Landry is not being solution focused with her petition idea. Capricornia is already included in the ACCC monitoring studies published every quarter. Also, the answers to Ms. Landry’s questions on the petition are found in ACCC reports on regional fuel price disparity.

Ms. Landry already came up with an attack plan for fuel prices in January. I am wondering if this is another one of Michelle Landry’s ‘gunna-do’ empty promises that won’t result in any solutions for the people of Capricornia and what is Landry gunna-do about the fuel prices in another six months?

Sent for consideration as a Letter to the Editor of the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin