SpeechDAMIEN SMITH (ACT): Thank you Madam Chair. The questions to the Minister are as follows. Why hasn't the Commerce Commission's investigation into fuel companies which the Government promised would bring down petrol prices by 30c a litre achieved a reduction in prices at the pump for motorists and interlocked with that question how can New Zealanders have any confidence that the market study into supermarkets will bring down food prices when this market study into petrol companies has failed to achieve anything at all? The third question is—with his policy team on statistics—given the appropriations in the Budget is he disappointed that nobody picked up the rampant inflation which is at a 30-year high and is seeping into every aspect of the economy? Hon Dr DAVID CLARK (Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs): Thank you Madam Chair. I want to deal with the member's question straight off around fuel prices. The first of the market studies that was conducted was indeed into the fuel sector—fuel supplies—and it was conducted before my time in the role currently but it's one which still has legislation coming through and the effects of that legislation coming through not to mention obviously the recent reduction in fuel tax that the Government has put through recognising that families on fixed and/or modest incomes have been feeling the challenges of the cost of living increases connected to the global inflationary environment and the challenges in the Ukraine. So the Government has responded to those issues as they have arisen. But I do want to pick up the member's—Damien Smith: Point of order. I'm talking about a period Madam Chairperson that was long before the Ukraine crisis and it has been reflected in—Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: I was coming to that. Damien Smith: —the last year. CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jenny Salesa): I call on the Minister the Hon Dr David Clark.Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: Thank you Madam Chair. I think the context of the current situation is important and I also want to directly address the member's concern about the market study—the first of its kind—funded by the current Government to really get into competition issues in the sector. There has been a documented reduction in the fuel margins charged since the time that that study was released. We can now have a transparent view of those markets and over the roughly 18 months since that report was released we can see that fuel margins have reduced sufficiently so that the average family filling up a car every two weeks which is pretty typical would have saved around $100 per annum as a result of fuel margins dropping. So I would say that that does amount to something that has greater transparency in the market and some evidence that fuel margins have dropped as a response to the findings of that study. On top of that I would also note that there's a new entrant in the South Island who attributes the ability to enter the fuel market to the changing conditions that were allowed for in the response to the fuel market study. So we've seen increased competition in the market as a result of measures that the Government took and also further transparency around pricing and so forth has recently come into effect. So there have been a number of changes in the market and I just do want to challenge the member repeating some of those lines that came out around the time of the study. It is no longer relevant because we've got evidence that that study has had a genuine impact on the fuel market.