Tuesday, 17 March 2026

 Nick STAIKOS (Bentleigh – Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Local Government) (14:29): At a time when families are watching every single dollar, the Allan Labor government is making sure Victorians are not being fleeced at the bowser. Our anti-price-gouging laws are now in effect. Victorian motorists can check Servo Saver, plan ahead and fill up with confidence instead of being ambushed by a surprise spike during the course of the day. Under our new laws, fuel retailers are required to set a maximum price for 24 hours. They can only discount down from that price, not jack it up. This is all about making life easier and providing real cost-of-living relief. It is also about transparency so that motorists can find the cheapest possible fuel in their area.

Since Servo Saver launched on the Service Victoria app, more than 370,000 individual Victorians have used it, and in the last week alone 119,000 unique users jumped on to find the cheapest fuel near them. That tells us that Victorians are really looking for this kind of help. And we are backing these new laws with more enforcement. Today we announced $4.6 million for a new fair fuel taskforce. Consumer Affairs Victoria will be out in the field with inspectors ensuring that every single fuel retailer is complying with our nation-leading laws. Those retailers not complying face severe penalties, and our taskforce will provide real-time information to the ACCC to assist the ACCC with their efforts to stamp out price gouging.

The reactions of two groups to this recently caught my eye. The first was the Victorian Liberals, who called these new laws ‘froth and bubbles’. The other group was the New South Wales Liberals, who called on their government to adopt Victoria’s laws. When their interstate colleagues are copying Labor, is it any wonder that the Liberal–National–One Nation coalition has not got a clue?