Fed: FuelWatch report sets record straight - Labor

AAP General News (Australia)
08-28-2008
Fed: FuelWatch report sets record straight - Labor

CANBERRA, Aug 28 AAP - The government says it released an interim report on the proposed
FuelWatch scheme to set the record straight and show Australians its benefits.

A Senate committee investigating Labor's plan to force petrol retailers to publish
their prices 24 hours in advance of changes published an interim report yesterday which
outlined evidence it heard at public forums across the nation.

Committee chairwoman Annette Hurley said the bad publicity surrounding FuelWatch was
unjustified and the interim report was an attempt to set the record straight.

"FuelWatch has a lot going for it and it didn't justify some of the criticisms that
were appearing about it," she told ABC Radio.

"So we just wanted to set the record straight about what evidence we'd received.

"It was just an attempt to get the facts straight, it was just an attempt to inform people."

Deputy opposition leader in the Senate, Eric Abetz, said the report was biased and
not a true representation of evidence heard by the committee.

"I invite people to read the report and they will see that it's not based on the evidence
we heard and I think they'll also understand that the attempt to breath new life into
Fuelwatch has not revived the corpse that FuelWatch is," he told ABC Radio.

"At the end of the day we are obliged to serve the best interests of the Australian
people and we could not let it pass (through the Senate) knowing that Australians would
be paying higher prices for their petrol and that is something that we are not willing
to countenance."

Key independent senator Nick Xenophon was also unsupportive of the FuelWatch scheme,
saying it did not tackle the issue of wholesale petrol supply or allow independent operators
to survive.

Without coalition backing for the FuelWatch scheme, the government needs to turn to
the seven balance of power senators - the Australian Greens, Senator Xenophon and Family
First's Steve Fielding - to get the law through the Senate.

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KEYWORD: PETROL

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