Fran Bailey (McEwen, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in this place today to bring to the attention of the parliament a couple of matters which are of great concern to constituents in my electorate. The first of these is the disparity in the price of LPG between what my constituents pay at the local garage and what they pay for the same LPG if it is delivered to their homes for the purposes of heating and cooking. I want to place on record my appreciation of Ms Sally-Anne Scrivener for the fantastic work that she has done within the Macedon Ranges communities in collecting signatures for a petition which has in fact been lodged in this our national parliament.

My local residents tell me that they actually watch trucks deliver supplies of LPG to local garages and that the same trucks then go on the rounds and deliver LPG, sourced from the same supply company, to homes. This is in the rural areas of my electorate, but it does in fact occur in the outer metropolitan areas as well. Madam Deputy Speaker Burke, I am sure that you and other members of the House would be astounded to know that the same LPG has a price differential of up to 30c a litre. Some of the most disadvantaged households within my electorate have to pay so much extra money simply to be able to do their cooking and heat their homes in the middle of winter. Let me say that the Macedon Ranges in particular get very cold in winter and we frequently have snow, especially around the Woodend area.

This is a terrible inequity. I do not understand why there is that price differential. Anyone who I have sought information from cannot explain to me why there is that price differential. I pay tribute to the work that Sally-Anne has done. She has done a fantastic job in making sure that people throughout the rural areas of the McEwen electorate are aware of this. This will be an issue that I will certainly be following up in the future, not just for the people of my electorate as I am sure that this is replicated in rural areas around Australia.