weekly hansard - Queensland Parliament - Queensland Government

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23 Aug 2005 Queensland Competition Authority Amendment Bill 2593 Secondly, the bill also provides for an additional monitoring and dispute resolution role for the QCA. Currently providers of monopoly assets are able to introduce voluntary codes of practice with regard to their pricing policies and allocation of resources. In order to ensure the credibility of the voluntary codes of practice, the QCA will be given the capacity to act as an independent compliance monitor and/or dispute resolution arbiter. Codes of practice can be used to tackle market power by imposing behavioural constraints on a business rather than the QCA using the sledgehammer approach of price regulation. The third area of attention is the area of information sharing. The bill proposes amendments which seek to improve information flow between the QCA and its departmental coregulators in the rail, energy and water sectors. Under current arrangements the directors-general of the relevant departments undertake some regulatory functions in concert with the QCA. At the moment the information flow between the QCA and DGs is stymied by the need for it to gain the permission of the regulated entity before passing on commercially confidential information. These amendments will address that inefficiency and provide a better outcome for industry and ultimately consumers. Overall, these amendments will improve the regulatory environment for some of our state’s major strategic assets. I commend the bill to the House. Mr JOHNSON (Gregory—NPA) (2.56 pm): I rise to speak in the debate on the Queensland Competition Authority Amendment Bill 2005. This afternoon my colleague the member for Charters Towers made reference to the issue of Queensland Rail jobs and the security of those jobs. I can see that the honourable member for Charters Towers’s heart is in protecting railway jobs for Queensland railway employees. I say at the outset that I was the minister when, in conjunction with my then colleague the honourable Treasurer and Deputy Premier of the day Joan Sheldon, we split the track of Queensland Rail to allow third party access so we could obtain payments from the federal sphere and let our state become a party to national competition. We now see operations like Freightcorp and Pacific National coming into Queensland. Queensland Rail is using the New South Wales operations, especially down in the Hunter Valley where it is hauling coal. This brings me to the importance of having a long-term vision. Mr Speaker, as you are a former minister for resources, mines and energy you would probably know more than most in this House about the importance of having very good integration of road, rail and port facilities when it comes to coal. Queensland Rail hauls something like 135 million tonnes of coal a year. This goes out of ports like Gladstone, Hay Point, Dalrymple Bay and Abbot Point. For too long I believe that our vision has not been right in relation to the missing link in the Bowen Basin. That is one area that I believe we should look at. When we talk about national competition policy we are talking about coal-mining operations, whether they be in the Bowen Basin, the southern basin or wherever. The other argument I always put is that the missing link also provides a duplicated route to the main coastal line. I think it is important to recognise that. The first component of the bill amends the state’s third party access regime framework to ensure the state’s competition framework is keeping pace with the multitude of contractual relationships utilised by modern business. Nothing is more accurate and nothing is truer than that. When we see the multinational coal conglomerates in Queensland bringing significant benefits to their shareholders and to the economy of this state, it is absolutely paramount that governments work in a cohesive way with those multinationals. We know the worth of the coal industry to Queensland, and we know what it is going to be worth in many years to come, especially around the Collinsville area, the Bowen Basin and the Surat Basin, where millions of tonnes of coal are still being explored and found. We are sitting on a real wealth of coal resources that will be advantageous and beneficial to the growth and the economics of this state for a long time to come. That brings me back to Hay Point and Dalrymple Bay. With the vision and knowledge that the departments have had in the past of that explosion in the coal industry, those loading facilities should have been seen to in years gone by rather than looking at the problem now. I heard the member for Warrego make reference this afternoon to the number of ships on the horizon. Someone very close to me counted 60 one day—60. When one multiplies that by, say, $20,000 to $40,000 a day demurrage, it adds up to a bit of chaff at the end of the year. I do not know how many coal-loading terminals we could have built for that sort of money. The real issue is competition. If we are going to have companies like Pacific National, Freightcorp, Queensland Rail and whoever else entering into the marketplace in Queensland, we have to ensure that we have in place a visionary infrastructure plan that will cater for the future growth and future viability of not only the coal industry but also the electricity industry, the water industry and other resources as the list goes on and on. Procrastination today is death in government—death in anything at all. The old saying is that he who hesitates is lost. It is very important that this legislation is passed in the parliament. At the same time, we should recognise the needs of enhancing competition benefits to Queensland consumers. Our exports are very competitive in the marketplace—whether it be coal or whatever. However, we need sophisticated enterprises to enhance the opportunity of those companies to not only benefit their
2594 Queensland Competition Authority Amendment Bill 23 Aug 2005 shareholders and their own asset base but also create wealth for the state. I cannot emphasise enough the importance of us being party to it. If members go through the Hansards of years gone by they will see that I was one firm, harsh critic of national competition policy in its early days because I thought the way it was done was unfair. That is why we have had to work it through together, to ensure that there is fairness in the equation and fairness in competition for our competitors and for the companies that are taking advantage of it. With that small contribution, I support the legislation and commend the bill to the House. Ms LEE LONG (Tablelands—ONP) (3.03 pm): This bill is part of a vast and complex set of rules, regulations and laws imposed on us for the sake of economic rationalism. That theory and its mutant children—national competition policy, free trade, privatisation and so on—are anathema for the bush. They are bad for all of Queensland. Even the Premier admitted this on 21 April last year when he stood up in this place and supported a motion that this place convey its concerns to the Prime Minister in relation to the impact of national competition policy and privatisation proposals on Queensland business and industry and the devastating effects being felt by Queensland families. He took the chance to attack the federal National Competition Council, particularly because of the penalties it imposed on Queensland over its refusal to introduce full contestability in electricity. In relation to a range of issues, the Premier said that Queensland considers the National Competition Council’s demands totally unacceptable and without justification. Yet this bill before us today is designed in part to free up our third party access regime—that is, to make it easier for competition in our essential infrastructure areas such as electricity, water and transport. The disquiet amongst ALP ranks over this economic dogma is deep. In the same debate, the transport minister said of national competition policy— Most of all, it is a study in hypocrisy. Is that so? One may wonder how, in that debate, the minister said that he did not agree with competition for competition’s sake and used the electricity industry as an example, yet today we have a bill providing for easier access for competitors to use our electricity infrastructure. Hypocrisy indeed, one might think! Taking the Premier’s lead, in that debate last year his government voted in support of the motion attacking national competition policy and its surrounding economic mantra. It is in detail a very complicated issue, but stepping back it is actually simple in its intent, and that is to increase profits for the big end of town. Those profits have to come from somewhere, and it is inevitably the pockets of average Queenslanders. I believe there are potential problems inherent in this bill, in particular provisions allowing the QCA to make access determinations requiring access providers who are not facility owners to make facility expansions. In plain English, that looks like a government policeman being able to mug operators using government owned electricity, water or transport infrastructure by requiring them to fund additions to that infrastructure. How that helps boost investor confidence is an open question at best. This bill will also bring in an authority for the QCA to act as a policeman for voluntary codes of conduct. These codes are seen as being an alternative to regulatory control, which is simply presumed to be somehow less acceptable. I am not convinced a voluntary code carries much weight. Certainly they do not now, and I wonder how much difference a monitoring authority will make. I have no problem with the provisions allowing the QCA to disclose commercially confidential information to the minister, QCA members or brother or sister organisations across Australia. The infrastructure involved is owned by the people of Queensland. Its elected representatives, particularly ministers, should have as-of-right access to all information relating to that infrastructure, to how it is being used and to commercial arrangements surrounding it. I think it is wishful thinking to expect these changes to come at no cost. The explanatory notes indicate that no implementation costs are expected, but with additional demands placed on the QCA I think it is reasonable to expect extra resources will be needed to meet those demands. Finally, I will emphasise the way this bill does nothing for anyone in Queensland as any economic benefit it may bring will be soaked up by the profit-hungry corporations. There is nothing in this for average Queenslanders, and for that reason I do not support it. Ms NOLAN (Ipswich—ALP) (3.07 pm): I rise to speak briefly in support of the Queensland Competition Authority Amendment Bill brought to the House by Terry Mackenroth and now followed through by the new Treasurer, who is also the Premier. Before I turn to the bill, I want to respond briefly to, to some extent, the pretty much incomprehensible words from the member for Tablelands, who at some stage spoke in support of the bill but indicated that she was in fact going to oppose it. I do not want to go into some kind of deep lesson in economics, but I just make this point: the member for Tablelands has come in here over a prolonged period and opposed all elements of what she calls globalisation and economic rationalism. She has done that from the perspective of representing the people in the bush. I just make this point to the member for Tablelands: most of the rural producers in her electorate are exporters. They grow crops and they sell them for a living. These people are exporters. They make their money—they make a living—out of a globalised economy. What this member has come in here and done over a period of time is said that we should close our economy, we should shut it down, we should make Australia pretty much self-sufficient in everything
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PROOF ISSN 1322-0330 WEEKLY HANSARD
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Table of Contents — Tuesday, 23 A
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2536 Papers 23 Aug 2005 PAPERS PAPE
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2538 Ministerial Statement 23 Aug 2
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2540 Ministerial Statement 23 Aug 2
Page 11 and 12: 2542 Ministerial Statement 23 Aug 2
Page 19 and 20: 2550 Scrutiny of Legislation Commit
Page 21 and 22: 2552 Private Members’ Statements
Page 23 and 24: 2554 Questions Without Notice 23 Au
Page 33 and 34: 2564 Members’ Ethics and Parliame
Page 35 and 36: 2566 Matters of Public Interest 23
Page 45 and 46: 2576 Constitutional and Other Legis
Page 47 and 48: 2578 Transport Legislation Amendmen
Page 49 and 50: 2580 Transport Legislation Amendmen
Page 51 and 52: 2582 Housing Legislation Amendment
Page 53 and 54: 2584 Education (Queensland College
Page 55 and 56: 2586 Succession Amendment Bill 23 A
Page 57 and 58: 2588 Succession Amendment Bill 23 A
Page 59 and 60: 2590 Queensland Competition Authori
Page 61: 2592 Queensland Competition Authori
Page 69 and 70: 2600 Racing Venues Development Amen
Page 81 and 82: 2612 Plumbing and Drainage and Othe
Page 99 and 100: 2630 Child Safety Legislation Amend
Page 111 and 112: 2642 Adjournment 23 Aug 2005 One pa
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2644 Adjournment 23 Aug 2005 years.
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2646 Adjournment 23 Aug 2005 Finall
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