Petrol Prices

So the ACCC announced last week an inquiry into the sharing of petrol pricing information by the oil companies, and Coles and Woolworths.

Are we to be excited? Well, the motoring bodies came out and welcomed the announcement. A good thing you might say. The only problem is that their reaction is predictable. Sadly, the work of the motoring bodies in exposing the petrol industry games has been very patchy, which has let their members down very badly.

Some motoring bodies are consistently very good in going after the petrol industry games while others have been weak preferring to make motherhood statements rather than getting to the heart of the issue. The problem with the motoring bodies is quite simply that some of them are passionate advocates for motorists while others act more like those politicians who try to be everyone’s friend.

Continue reading "Petrol price wars rage on, with no end in sight" »

Have you ever been to Alice Springs? Well, if you have you will know that the Alice is the heart of Australia in more ways than one. If you haven’t, then you should join the thousands of overseas visitors who regularly flock to the Alice.

You will be in awe of many things in the Alice, especially when you see how a community in the middle of Australia can, in so many ways, be a microcosm of our country.

The Alice has all the great personalities you get in the big cities. There are the talk show presenters at Radio 8HA like Adrian Renzi, or “Renz” to his friends, who are great at expressing the public indignation on issues of importance to the local community. There is, of course, the local ABC Radio Station where presenters like Breakfast Show host, Stewart Brash, start the locals thinking about the day’s big issues.

Continue reading "The price of black gold is white hot in the red heart" »

The everyday driver, stranded by a lack of functional alternatives, is being forced to pay over the odds for the right to put a vehicle on the road.

And there is no relief in sight, either as a tax cut or a greater return in the form of increased road funding.

The first whack is in ever-climbing vehicle registration fees from state government; the second is from an unrelenting fuel excise which the Federal Government would love to increase but can’t.

Continue reading "Excess excise excites bean counters, incites motorists" »

Here we go again. Another festive season and yet another petrol rip off!

A ridiculously unaffordable scenario

Now for some of us there’s nothing new in that - we have simply got used to being ripped off. For the free market theorists and other apologists for the big oil companies and major petrol retailers, like Coles and Woolworths, they like the fact that petrol margins have been growing even if it has been at the expense of motorists.

It’s easy for the free market theorists to turn a blind eye to motorists being gouged as some of the free market theorists may be shareholders of the big petrol retailers or may even earn big dollars advising them. They may even have a company or taxpayer funded petrol card. There’s nothing like a vested interest to cloud a person’s economic frame of mind.

Continue reading "A tip off on stopping the Big Petrol rip off" »

Are you getting better at distinguishing between political spin and substance? You probably are given the growing number of Federal Government examples!

How can you distinguish between spin and substance? Well, it’s fairly simple when you can spot the obvious signs.

First up, you have the grandiose statement. Some examples include: “we are going to have a tough petrol cop on the beat, ensuring that motorists are not paying a cent more than they have to at the bowser”, “the greatest moral challenge” and “building the education revolution”.

Continue reading "When a politician spins, nobody wins" »

Are you sick of being ripped off at the petrol pump? Are you annoyed that despite ample oil supplies on the market to meet current demand the speculators persist in trying to push up world oil prices?  And don’t forget that the Singapore benchmark for refined petrol used to calculate local petrol prices remains one of the highest in the world.

A rip off is a rip off. The fact is that despite consistently being an inflated benchmark the Singapore benchmark for unleaded petrol has fallen dramatically since May 6. Despite valiant efforts by the speculators to try and prop up world oil prices, the Singapore benchmark price has fallen signifcantly.

As the Singapore benchmark price falls so should the local wholesale and retail petrol prices. The problem is that falls take forever to be passed through to motorists at the pump. We are given the usual “reasons” for the time lag. We are told that it takes time for the oil companies and major retailers to clear out old stock bought at the old, higher price.

Continue reading "It’s not Singapore slinging us at the petrol pump" »

Are you fed up with costly political gimmicks by the Federal Government? Well, you should be as those gimmicks are costing you, the taxpayer, lots of money. We all know about the money wasted on Fuelwatch and GroceryChoice. While those debacles are long gone, they are not forgotten and serve as a constant reminder of how taxpayers’ money can be easily wasted.

That’s why we need to be vigilant to ensure that the Government doesn’t waste any more of your taxpayer money. Now there is one ongoing waste of money and that relates to the so-called Office of the Petrol Commissioner. Here we have a Petrol Commissioner at the ACCC that “watches” petrol prices.

You probably wouldn’t know, and perhaps don’t even care that we have actually had two different ACCC Petrol Commissioners appointed. The first left quickly, and the second one, Joe Dimasi, had been a long time ACCC staffer who was up-sized to a Commissioner title, with all the added costs to the taxpayer that a Commissioner title brings with it.

Continue reading "Sack the petrol commissioner - we’re paying too much" »

Last weekend - while you were taking the kids to the beach, buying those extra back-to-school necessities, or for many, still counting the toll of recent devastating floods – unleaded petrol prices in capital cities rose an average 15 cents a litre at Coles and Woolworths outlets to a massive 143.9 cents per litre.  And those ridiculous rises were matched in part by the Independents and other chains.

So what’s the story?

On Saturday, the wholesale price of petrol actually dropped by more than half a cent, yet on the weekend we were hit with a massive 15 cent increase.  The size of the hike was described as “staggering” by FUELtrac general manager Greg Trotter.  He rightly pointed out that the prices we are now paying at the pump rival those records in 2008 when oil hit a peak of $US145 a barrel.  The big difference is that the current price of oil is only around the $US90 mark.

Continue reading "Labor is turning a blind eye to price hikes" »

Were you watching petrol prices in the lead up to Christmas 2010? If you were, then you would have noticed that the average retail price of unleaded petrol was going up around Australia.

So what was behind the price hike in the lead up to Christmas? Well, there were a number of possible reasons, all of which meant that motorists were generally paying more than they needed to for petrol during the festive season. Some of these reasons, as we will see, also meant that motorists were paying inflated prices in some places.

Let’s start at the retail end and work our way back to international petrol and oil prices.

Continue reading "Why petrol is so freakin’ expensive during the holidays" »

Have you ever wondered where you can buy the cheapest petrol or groceries? Well, if you have, then you would know that such information is not readily available.

You may try and search for the information, but in Australia you will soon find that there is generally no single place to get it. Yes, there may be some pricing information out there but it may be very limited, out of date or not in a readily accessible form.

In practice, this lack of full price transparency places you, the consumer, at a severe disadvantage. How many times have you driven by a petrol station offering one price only to find another service station down the road offering a cheaper price? What if you had decided to go into the first service station to buy your petrol only to later drive by the cheaper service station down the road? We have all been there and felt ripped off in the process.

Continue reading "Transparent fuel and grocery prices: time for another go?" »

With growing evidence that cosy clubs between large and powerful companies are bad for competition and consumers, the Federal Government needs to act quickly to deal with the ACCC’s concerns on the issue.

The latest push from the ACCC came last week when it decided to oppose the proposed Caltex acquisition of 302 Mobil service stations. As part of that decision the ACCC expressed grave concerns that the oil majors appeared to be engaging in “price coordination” activities.

In plain English that means that the ACCC is alleging that the oil majors are acting as a cosy club when it comes to petrol prices. In particular, the ACCC is pointing to the oil majors conveniently following each other on prices. According to the ACCC this is leading to sharp rises in prices at the beginning of the weekly price cycle and slow falls during the cycle.

Continue reading "Phone tapping powers ring changes on petrol prices" »