’Bonkers’, ‘Beggars belief’: Premier’s petrol station plan debacle

If you ever needed proof that Premier Steven Miles is in the wrong place at the wrong time, then his bizarre pledge to build state-owned petrol stations is it, writes Kylie Lang.

Queensland: beautiful one day, socialist the next.

If you ever needed proof that Premier Steven Miles is in the wrong place at the wrong time, then his bizarre pledge to build state-owned petrol stations is it.

Comrade Miles, clearly desperate as Labor’s popularity tanks ahead of the October election, reckons if he uses state money – in other words, our taxes – to construct 12 government-run fuel stations, then that will ease cost-of-living pressures.

This is based on the premise that it will increase competition and force the big guns to drop their prices.

It won’t.

Premier Steven Miles. Picture: Patrick Woods.

Equally flawed is the second prong of the plan – legislating to prevent fuel prices being increased by more than 5c a litre per day.

If George Orwell were alive today, he would be penning a new novel titled 2024, the sequel to his dystopian bestseller 1984.

Economists and peak bodies have been quick to slam the moves outlined by Comrade Miles in his first (and probably last) State of the State speech this week.

Respected economist Saul Eslake said the market intervention was reminiscent of Queensland of yesteryear – 1915-1929 – when the government owned butcher shops. Although done with intentions to deliver jobs and cheap meat during and after WWI, it was an economic disaster, leading Mr Eslake to label the Miles government plan “a crude, populist, low-rent gimmick”.

For these proposed fuel stations to offer cheaper prices, they’d have to operate at a massive loss, he said.

And this, of course, amounts to yet another misuse of taxpayer dollars – and in a period we can least afford it.

AMP capital chief economist Shane Oliver – also no drip when it comes to understanding policy impacts – summed up Comrade Miles’ idea as “bonkers”, while Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association boss Mark McKenzie said it “beggars belief”.

“History proves that government interference in complex competitive markets inevitably leads to higher costs for consumers,” Mr McKenzie said. “Small independent businesses thrive on the operation of fuel price cycles and are the ones who drive prices down. The proposed price caps will destroy these businesses and cede competition to a smaller number of large businesses.”

Independent petrol station owner Suraj Rathod welcomed the plan. Pic: Lyndon Mechielsen

The National Retailers Association echoed this, saying independent operators would be pushed out of the market, while the Business Council of Australia called it “Soviet-era policy” that would “drive investment and jobs away from Queensland”.

Readers of The Courier-Mail who are naturally in favour of cut-price fuel have also seen through this cheap trick by a sinking government.

“This preposterous idea has already been tried and failed dismally,” wrote one.

“In the 1970s, the ACTU under future Labor PM Bob Hawke launched the Solo branded petrol stations to take on the market to reduce petrol prices. Where is Solo now? Gone. Another failed socialist attempt at distorting the free market.”

Despite the chorus of criticism, Comrade Miles is standing by his plan, even after admitting he hasn’t properly costed it.

Hello?

The Premier should be turning his attention to the Brisbane 2032 Games and listening to the independent and credible voices on that one.

A state-of-the-art stadium at Victoria Park has been costed and represents better bang for buck by even the most conservative of measures. Again, hello?

Steven Miles should be looking to the future and what’s best for Queensland, instead of reverting to the past in a string of sad and fiscally irresponsible bids to keep his job.

Similarities can be easily drawn between the petrol station fizzer and the waste of our money tarting up the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre stadium in the cultural wasteland of Nathan, where the closest thing to a landmark is a cemetery.

As I’ve written here previously, the embarrassing decision to deliver a no-frills 40,000-seat stadium which is no bigger than what Amsterdam offered when it hosted the Games – in 1928 – means the required ticket revenue will not be met. How could it, with a chronic shortfall of bums on seats?

Steven Miles might well say, as he did this week, “nobody will ever call me a small target”, in a deliberate swipe at Opposition Leader David Crisafulli, but an increasing number of Queenslanders are now calling him an easy target.

Kylie Lang is Associate Editor of The Courier-Mail

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Originally published as ’Bonkers’, ‘Beggars belief’: Premier’s petrol station plan debacle