Petrol Prices

Here in Melbourne like most mainland states in Australia, the price of petrol goes up every week and down again. And guess what, all the petrol outlets go up together and down again. When they have been accused of collusion, they say, 'they don't price fix and they are just discounting fuel to benefit the consumers.' But of course they have to put it back up again to make money. They also say the price of fuel is based on the Singapore crude price.

Having set the scene, we have an enquiry by the Australian Competition Consumer Commission (ACCC) that started a week or so ago, for the government, into fuel pricing, it is an ongoing enquiry and it hasn't reported yet.

The NRMA a motoring body like the RACV have released their own findings that show since the announcement of the enquiry, the major petrol companies have actually reduced the cost of fuel, and the typical cycle of high to low pricing has stayed in the low zone much longer.

[This is despite a rise in Singapore crude, which normally produces an immediate price rise at the bowser.]

The NRMA draws the conclusion that the petrol suppliers have been ripping us off [we all knew that, but couldn't prove it] and are now deliberately keeping the price lower to look good in the eyes of the enquiry. In fact the NRMA have called for the price of fuel to be regulated like, gas, electricity and water. That is a big call for a motoring organisation.
I have heard that if big business is allowed to control over 60% of the economy we would have real problems to contend with. Governments are there to, in part, protect us from the excesses of big business. Are the Shells and BPs of the world making smaller profits since the price rise in world oil? I don't think so.
Woof.


Any additional comments can be sent to mark_brickel@hotmail.com