I see the ACCC reports petrol margins at highest level – The ABC reports – Petrol price gouging at highest level on record – Fairfax says Motorists are getting pumped on petrol prices: ACCC – the AFR says – Petrol retailers fail to pass fall in crude oil price on to motorists.
World oil price chart West Texas Intermediate
Caltex Australia Ltd (CTX.AX) share price since start 2011.
Amazing how Australian motorists – who are also voters – put up with this. The Australian retail petrol market is worth about $75Billion PA which is about $3,000 per head of population. I do not know what the figure is for average households but many would spend $100 per week. Must be a big slice of many families costs. Yet the ripoff is way below political radar. How well the Oil Co’s have played Australia for decades.
Amazing how the ACCC declares this oligopolistic cartel a “free market”.
Yes Anto – you have to pinch yourself.
I see the ACCC on TV news making the mealy mouthed apology for oil-co’s saying – “of course the recent fall in the world oil price will not have had time yet to flow through to pump prices”. Facts are world oil prices have been collapsing for 18 months and competitive pump prices have never flowed through to the sucker motorists.
A major criticism I have of the ACCC is the way they endorse the petrol “price cycles” – see they actually have www pages describing these price cycles in the various cities.
Petrol price cycles
www.accc.gov.au/consumers/petrol-diesel-lpg/petrol-price-cycles
staggering when these cycles are ENTIRELY creatures of the OilCo’s. The repeated synchronised sharp upward jumps across an entire city market are simply a marketing ploy that the OilCo’s find has worked for them in Australia over many years to combat price cutting tendencies at independent retail outlets.
The ACCC has announced a constructive move though results from their legal action –
Petrol prices: Consumers to get access to retailers’ data under ACCC deal
www.canberratimes.com.au/business/retail/petrol-prices-consumers-to-get-access-retailers-data-under-accc-deal-20151222-gltsaz.html
Why have these secret anti-competitive price-rings been allowed to operate for decades?
I read where the petrol market is worth AU$75Billion per year – so the sheer amounts capable of being ripped off consumers by a few cents here and there are significant in terms of many weekly budgets.
It is interesting that the recent ACCC moves from their court case might bring advantages of price transparency to motorists – similar to the West Australian FuelWatch system – so derided some years back when the Rudd Govt proposed a national version.