NT Treasurer says he's looking into fuel prices

The Northern Territory has legislated extra safeguards for motorists to help protect

them from the eye-watering surge in fuel prices that we've seen.

The Territory government last week triggered a 77-year-old law to force retailers to make

their full constructions public.

The government says that, in the most extreme cases, the legislation will allow it to

overrule and set the price of petrol and diesel at the bowser.

Bill Yan is the Northern Territory treasurer.

Welcome to Radio National Breakfast.

Good morning, Melissa and good morning to all your listeners around the country.

Now, have you now received the information that you were seeking last week from retailers that

prompted you to trigger that law to make more information about pricing public?

Yeah, when we enacted that old piece of legislation, the Price Exploration Protection Act,

it gave us the power to reach into wholesale and retailers and get them to disclose the price

as should we need to.

So, it wasn't an open straight-up blanket you need to provide us with your prices.

It was where we were monitoring behaviour where we may have seen unjust or unfair practices.

We could go in and ask for that detail.

Now, that's already taken place, Melissa.

We've seen some actions from some wholesale and retailers leading into Easter and overuse

of which we think was certainly unfair and not in the best interest of consumers here in

Territory.

So, we've immediately written to those, hold that wholesaler and a retailer.

My understanding is a retailer has responded.

But we've also, and our remote station,

referred them to the aid triple C.

Now, we know that cameras increased, I suppose, the bite of the aid triple C

in light of what's taking place.

So, there's been a referral for them as well.

So, that has been actually using that law that was passed with those cases that you

identified over the Easter period?

Yeah, absolutely.

I said, we'll do whatever it takes to make sure that people in Territory aren't being rip off

at the bars.

Now, we suffer the tyranny of distance, which sadly makes our fuel a little bit more expensive.

So, anything we can do is the government to make sure that our wholesales and restales are doing

the right thing we'll use.

And in the whole, the most of our retailers and wholesales had been doing the right thing,

which is great to see.

Now, that legislation, it does give you the power if you need it to overrule and set the

price of petrol and diesel at the Bowser as the government.

What would be the threshold for the government to have to pull the trigger to do that?

Yeah, look, that would have to be a very, very last resort that we'd have to go in and do that.

So, in the first instance, where we see behavior that is, as it's not supporting the people

of the territory, we get that information and dive in and have a look at that processing

structure and what's taking place like from terminal gate through to freight costs and then

what the retail margins may be.

And if we get to a point where we would have to then, after finding out that data,

then make that decision as it's a very serious, a very extra ordinary decision we'd have to make.

But what we would be doing is looking at that data and say, okay, a retail margin of

X is sufficient and we'd have to go in and set that maybe on a wholesale or retail.

So, it wouldn't necessarily be about once a price hits X amount.

The government would intervene. It would only be if there was a retailer or a wholesaler

unduly taking advantage of rising prices that you would take that kind of action.

Yeah, that's right. This is because the terminal gate price here at the port is changing daily

and each wholesaler has a different terminal gate price. So, that determines what price

diesel and petrol is leaving the port and heading out to the stations.

And when you look at it, I said the size of the territory, we also then have that freight

component. So, getting fuel from Darwin to add out springs has a cost and then there's an

additional cost getting it out to remote areas. So, that has to be taken into account.

Anything else where we're seeing price gouging would certainly be frowning upon that.

And we'll come down on businesses like a ton of bricks if we find it.

You're listening to Radio National Breakfast, where my guest is the NT Treasurer Bill Yan.

Now, we've seen the Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen say that fuel shipments to Australia

are now secured all through April and well into May. Are you feeling reassured about fuel supplies

being sufficient in the NT for the next two, you know, six to eight weeks?

Yeah, well, we're holding in stock around that national average in reserve of about 30 plus days,

which is good. Now, we haven't seen any ships not come in. And in fact, we have a bulk tanker

here in port as we speak. I've got oversight of shipments out for three weeks. I think

and this is where it can be comes into play for us as having that oversight longer term.

We know the Prime Minister's going to Singapore to to shore up that relationship and make sure

that we're getting shipments coming through. So, I'm feeling fairly comfortable at the moment,

as with the oversight that I have out to three weeks from today. So, we get a shipment

about every six to seven days. And yeah, so far we haven't missed any and we're not looking to miss any.

Yeah, feeling fairly comfortable. I think people will be happy to hear that. I want to turn to

another issue, the National Gun by-back scheme. Yesterday on our program, Attorney General Michelle

Roland told us this, I think all of your listeners would agree they are sensible. This is a package

of rights and territories. Don't want to proceed. And it is for them to explain to their constituency

why that is the case. Cannot proceed with only some states and territories on board. Well, again,

this is supposed to be a national by-back scheme. So, by its very nation. So, it can't work

unless it's supposed to be agrees. And they should recognise that. So, that's the Attorney General

Michelle Roland there. Can you explain for our audience why the Northern Territory isn't supporting

the government's National Gun by-back scheme? Yeah, there's a couple of things, Emily. So, I think,

firstly, we've taken a very territory first approach to the gun by-back scheme. And this is

something that's being introduced by Cameron, and in fact, we're like, why should we have to

stump up the bill for a larger part of it? But I think people outside the territory probably

to understand where firearms sit with what we do now. We're, I said, very remote areas

and guns at the end of the day in firearms are tools, in most respects, for the partial

portion people add in the bush. And also, as part of our loss, I like firearms and guns are

certainly part of our loss. We have a lot of Hunters, a lot of people who live out in the bush

who use firearms to provide food for themselves. So, our needs are very, very different to the

rest of the country. And we've got very, very responsible firearm owners here in Territory.

You mentioned, right at the beginning there, the cost of this, the federal government wanted

states and territories to pay half the cost. If that cost issue were changed, if the Commonwealth

funded all of it, would that overcome your other concerns? Oh, I think that's a separate point,

Melissa, at the end of the day. But as I said, for us, it's a very territory first approach.

Now, there's no chance that you'll change your mind. And Michelle Rollin still seems to think

that there's an opportunity for you and other jurisdictions to come on board. But is that

if you've drawn a line under it, it's not happening? Well, I think we'd have to have some very

serious discussions with the Commonwealth about this. But at the moment, the way that the

destruction we can't, and we don't support it, because it doesn't support what we do here in

a territory, particularly those people who live remote and live out in the bush, who use firearms

on a daily basis. They have part of life here in a territory. So, we'll always take that

territory first approach to any gun boyback scheme, whether or not we're going to have to

foot half the bill for a boyback away to the Commonwealth is going to stump up all the bills.

Bill Yan, thanks very much for speaking to us on Radio National Breakfast this morning.

You have a great day, Melissa. Thank you. Bill Yan is the treasurer of the Northern Territory.