CANBERRA, ACT, March 15 -- The Treasurer of Australia issued the following transcript:
Note
Subjects: Iranian soccer players, fuel price crackdown, cost-of-living help
David Woiwod:
Now we're joined by federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers, live in Springwood. Good morning to you, Treasurer. Thanks for joining us here. Look, the government fought hard for these players here. You must hold some really grave concerns for the safety of those heading back home.
Jim Chalmers:
I am worried about them. I can only imagine the pressure that they feel and how difficult these sorts of decisions would be for them. I don't have all of the details of the decision that they've taken. I'm not going to guess at those decisions.
But for our part as the government, the job was always to provide the opportunity for them to stay if they wanted to. We can't and haven't sought to compel an outcome for obvious reasons, and I'm proud that we've provided that opportunity. I'm pleased that there are still a number of these Iranian women who will be staying, as I understand it, but obviously a number of them have taken a difficult decision in the last day or 2 and I hope they're okay.
Monique Wright:
Yeah. Okay. Well, moving on to questions about the economy now. And petrol prices, of course, hit record highs over this weekend. Now, price gouging or a sudden increase in price is actually not illegal, despite what many of us might think. Our fuel giants just have to be upfront about why they're raising their prices. So, given that fines have already been issued, as you said on this program earlier in the week, what is the ACCC actually doing? What have those fines been for so far?
Chalmers:
Well, I'll give you one good example - just last month Mobil was fined $16million for misleading behaviour. Obviously, I can't go through all of the steps that the ACCC is taking. Some of those steps would be underway or ongoing but that's a good example of the ACCC using the powers that the government gives it to fine people, in this case, pretty substantially for doing the wrong thing by motorists.
And just last Wednesday, we took some additional steps in this regard. We dialled up the surveillance, we doubled the penalties, and also we got the ACCC working closely with the industry. Now, the ACCC released a petrol report on Friday and it did show some evidence of retail prices rising faster than wholesale prices. That's obviously an unacceptable development and so the ACCC has hauled in the suppliers and the retailers to meet with some of these automotive groups on Tuesday, as I understand it.
Anyone doing the wrong thing has to explain themselves and if they're caught doing the wrong thing, they'll be fined and those fines will be more substantial because of the steps that we are taking, including, we've given the ACCC the power to issue on the spot fines.
Wright:
Just to clarify that $16million fine to Mobil last month. That was before the war?
Chalmers:
It was, but it shows that the ACCC is prepared to use these powers. So, what happened was we increased the penalty - maximum penalties, to $50million before the conflict. We've now flagged doubling that to $100million. We'll have to legislate that. We'll legislate that as soon as we can. I'll be introducing that legislation in the fortnight that parliament comes back this month because we think it's really important to dial up this surveillance to double the penalties and also make sure that fuel is getting where it's needed.
There are pressures, particularly in some regional areas where the supply chain is not working as it should and that's why all these hundreds of millions of litres of fuel that we've just released, we've released on the condition that it goes to some of these areas where the pressures are most acute and often that's regional areas.
Woiwod:
Yeah, and we've been seeing those stories all week Treasurer. From July, supermarket retailers will be actually banned from charging prices that are excessive. Could you now look at extending this to include fuel retailers as well?
Chalmers:
Well David, as I said, we've already dramatically increased the powers and particularly the fining powers of the ACCC when suppliers and retailers specifically -
Woiwod:
Specifically to this legislation?
Chalmers:
- do the wrong thing. When it comes to gouging, we consider all of these kinds of steps. There are a lot of suggestions in this area. These suggestions are welcome and we work through these issues. The difference between supermarkets and fuel is that supermarkets, our supermarket sector is dominated by a couple of players, for better or worse and so those price gouging arrangements are easier to apply than it is when we've got thousands of independent suppliers as well as some of the big corporates doing this.
And so we're working through a whole bunch of contingencies and ideas but the steps that we are already taking, we think are really important steps.
Wright:
Alright. Treasurer, this morning we've had security experts on, we've had food distribution industry and economists that are all painting a pretty bleak picture if this war goes on. What do you say to the people that are sitting at home that are really worried about how they're going to be able to afford it when we're in the cost‑of‑living crisis as it is before the war?
Chalmers:
Yes, I think some of the guests you've had on this morning really are a pretty familiar cross section of the sorts of issues that we are concerned about and that Australians are concerned about. It's why we've got cost‑of‑living help rolling out, it's why we've taken these steps with the ACCC that you and I have been talking about.
We know that people are under pressure, we know that developments in the Middle East make those pressures harder rather than easier, we've been upfront about that and these will be the big considerations as we put this Budget together for May.
But we're providing this cost‑of‑living help, we're cracking down on suppliers and retailers doing the wrong thing because we understand that people are under pressure and developments overseas make that worse, not better.
Woiwod:
Yep. Well, people are hurting right now. Treasurer, thank you for your time.
Chalmers:
Thank you.
Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.
