There has been only one tender for each of the three trunk-route service stations reserved for independents _ Burmah Oil, the existing Canberra independent, according to industry and other sources.
Tenders closed on Wednesday. Apparently some late tenders also came in.
The office of the Attorney-General and Consumer Affairs, Terry Connolly, said the tenders were a planning matter. The office of the Minister for Planning, Bill Wood, said tender information could not be divulged.
Mr Connolly brought Burmah Oil into Canberra a year ago with the offer of a site in Kingston at substantially under the previous going rate for service station sites. The retail price of petrol came down immediately, by about 5 cents a litre for private motorists.
Mr Connolly said at the time that other trunk-route sites would be tendered to ensure competition, not only against the majors but among several independents themselves and that Burmah would not be the only “”independent”.
The public tender for the new sites was criticised by the Opposition and industry as being so restrictive and demanding that few independents, other than Burmah, would be able to comply.
The Leader of the Opposition, Kate Carnell, said last night that, if it were true that only Burmah had tendered, it proved the Opposition’s prediction.
“”If there is only one independent, where is the competition?” she said. “”The cheap petrol being delivered at present is being subsidised at a cost to ACT ratepayers and small businesses. Two more service stations are to close at the end of the month.”
Mr Connolly has said that his policy has been justified by the cheaper prices.
The executive director of the Motor Trades Association of Australia, Michael Delaney, said petrol had not been substantially cheaper because of Burmah. The Industry Commission had put it at between 1.4 and 1.9 cents a litre over the whole year _ almost exactly equivalent to Burmah’s rent discount. International prices had come down anyway.
Also, many petrol users were on bulk corporate contracts at a price well under the retail price so their price had not been affected by Burmah’s entry to the market.
He said many people had guessed Burmah had been promised another site and that apparently is what had happened.
The tender terms had not permitted genuine independents in. Burmah was not a genuine independent; it had close links to Shell which gave it a guaranteed supply which would have enabled it to more easily meet the tender terms. It was a very large multi-national.
Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane had genuine independents but apparently they could not meet the restrictive terms and no new players like a Canberra consortium thought it worthwhile.
It suited Shell to have Burmah as its subsidiary in Canberra.