The blame for Canberra’s high petrol prices “”quite clearly lies with the oil companies”, the Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett, said yesterday.
“”They are milking the Territory for all they can get,” she said.
Ms Follett was addressing a post-Budget business breakfast. She said the Government intended to put pressure on the oil companies by ensuring an independent operator opened in Canberra to promote competition. She defended the half-cent-a-litre rise in petrol franchise tax, saying it would bring it in to line with NSW. It would protect the revenue base. The earlier aim of having a lower tax than NSW was to produce lower petrol prices. That had failed.
The Government’s move to bring an independent operator would help local service-station operators.
She defended the Budget’s $34.5 million borrowings saying the Budget had a $12.8 million surplus on recurrent spending. The Borrowings were for capital spending and responsible. The debt trap referred to by the Commonwealth Grants Commission occurred when borrowings were spent on recurrent spending.
Borrowings were half those of the last Kaine Alliance Government Budget and half the Loan Council limit.
The borrowing were in line with “”informed opinion”, she said, “”and I stress the “informed’.”