11. Question No. 11—Commerce and Consumer AffairsGINNY ANDERSEN (Labour) to the Minister of Commerce and Consumer AffairsQuestion No. 11—Commerce and Consumer Affairs11. GINNY ANDERSEN (Labour) to the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs: What reports has he seen about responses to the draft report of the Commerce Commission on the New Zealand fuel market?Hon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs): I have seen several and I'm happy to give the House a flavour of some of those. Firstly the Motor Trade Association or MTA said the report's findings confirm the concerns raised by the association and said that they were pumped" with what they saw yesterday. The AA said they agree with the report's recommendations to make changes at the wholesale end of the market. The chief executive of Gull agreed that the wholesale fuel market in New Zealand is not working. But I was surprised to see a report from this morning of a former Minister of Transport taking responsibility for 50 reports into this issue when he was a Minister and when asked why he didn't do anything about it he said "I'll tell you why—I'll tell you why. Because there's nothing easy." On this side of the House we will tackle the hard issues that are going to make a difference to hard-working New Zealanders.Hon Gerry Brownlee: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. When a Minister is asked a question shouldn't they be answering a question on their own behalf rather than parroting a comment from the Leader of the Opposition as somehow part of their answer. That would seem to me to come into the category that you have previously ruled against which is using a question to bring the Opposition into some kind of question which is not reasonable. We've seen a lot of it today as it happens and we'll certainly want to come and see you about the Hansard from the previous questions answered by the Prime Minister.Hon KRIS FAAFOI: Speaking to the point of order I'm not sure if you're going to give me leave to table the transcript but it wasn't parroting; it was absolutely verbatim.SPEAKER: As I've said to the Hon Shane Jones recently about parrots and giant parrots and rediscovered ones saying exactly what someone has said is parroting. So I don't think there's any problem with the use of that word. The problem that I have is that right up till the last comment and even then the Minister was within order. I mean he was asked about responses. He quoted a response or a few responses. He indicated that he disagreed with one of them and why. I'll be watching carefully further supplementaries but I think he didn't go over the line on this occasion.Ginny Andersen: How will the Government respond to the draft report?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: We are already laying the groundwork for a quick and effective response once the final report is received in December. As I have been saying it is our firm intention to back Kiwi consumers and we will watch closely the consultation process. We are already considering options to fix the retail fuel market so that it is competitive and to get Kiwis a fairer deal.Ginny Andersen: Why won't the Government reduce fuel taxes? Hon KRIS FAAFOI: We believe that Kiwis appreciate our investment in core infrastructure. What Kiwis don't appreciate is being fleeced by a broken market. This investment is sorely needed after many years of neglect. Our fuel taxes are low by OECD standards and the Commerce Commission report found that New Zealand had the third-highest pre-tax premium petrol and diesel prices. We are very concerned about the margins that petrol companies are making and we're happy to make a difference for hard-working New Zealanders who are feeling the pain at the pump after nine years of neglect."