During a visit to Sale on Thursday, Senator Fielding said the continued rise of the bigger businesses squeezing out their smaller competitors was a concern.

He said the ACCC, in particular, should look carefully at the proposed sale of Mobil-owned petrol stations to Caltex.

"I think the ACCC doesn't look after the little guy enough,'' he said.

"I think they're cosying up to big business far too much for me. I just don't think they're doing enough, and regional areas will feel it a lot more as you get more and more of the market share driven by the bigger players.

"It's a real concern with supermarkets, with petrol, banks, there's an over concentration in these markets and the little guy is squeezed out. And it's us, the small guys, footing the bill with higher prices for things and, frankly, it's not good enough and ACCC should draw a line in the sand on this one and say no to the Caltex taking over the Mobil service stations.''

Senator Fielding was in Sale to speak to and gain ideas and views from the public, in particular on the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.

"From the people I've spoken to here, there is a quite a few people here who are bit nervous about going down this track. Again others are saying we've definitely got to do it,'' he said.

"For those people that are really nervous and concerned about it, it comes back to jobs.

"Most people want to do more for the environment, no doubt about it, but there's quite a few people saying `we don't know too much about the detail'.''

Senator Fielding was gathering information from the public on the scheme ahead of the Senate's inquiry into the government's proposed emissions trading scheme.

"I really want to get a feel of what people are sensing, then engage them and their thoughts on the process. It's really important,'' he said.

Earlier that day, Senator Fielding had been in the Latrobe Valley to discuss the scheme with power companies.

Senator Fielding commented on the changes to qualify for Youth Allowance, claiming it was unfair for the Federal Government to make changes which would affect students who had already decided to take a gap year to get a job before university study.

"We're certainly putting the government on notice that we won't be supporting the change until they defer it for a year,'' he said.