Janet Collins
Billy MSniffing Out the Petrol Rorts
May 28th 2008 12:04
Petrol has always been one of those issues that successive governments have prayed to go away. It’s not surprising. Australia more than many other countries has so much distance between its cities and cars and subsequently petrol has become a critical issue.
You only have to look back to 2001 when the same debate that is currently in progress resulted in Prime Minister John Howard reducing the excise on petrol when prices reached $1.00 a litre. Of course, there was an election that year and voters were all important at that time. This did not stop prices then escalating to over the $1.00 mark.
I cannot profess to know all there is about oil, the drilling process, the refinement process and the exporting and importing of products that finally give us the product called petrol. I do recollect however some of the history, from the strikes in the 70s and 80s, the discounting wars in the latter part of the 80s and finally the gradual disappearance of many of the petrol stations to make way for property development.
Did this come about because petrol stations were not profitable enough to keep many going? Or was it the companies themselves who thought they could control the market by having less of them?
I don’t think it was too long ago that as a motorist you could travel from one petrol station that was advertising too high a price for its petrol to another which was a short journey up the highway. Not any more. In most areas – and I was caught recently by this – if you are running low on petrol you have no choice. There may not be another petrol station for eight or ten kilometres.
In recent months, I have seen extremely long queues in some petrol stations, particularly on certain days where the prices have dropped a few cents a litre. There has been little commentary I notice from those who peddle the market-driven economy philosophy. There are now far less petrol stations and we are left with them dictating the price.
Where are all the market driven economists on this issue? I haven’t heard any of them speak.
You only have to look back to 2001 when the same debate that is currently in progress resulted in Prime Minister John Howard reducing the excise on petrol when prices reached $1.00 a litre. Of course, there was an election that year and voters were all important at that time. This did not stop prices then escalating to over the $1.00 mark.
I cannot profess to know all there is about oil, the drilling process, the refinement process and the exporting and importing of products that finally give us the product called petrol. I do recollect however some of the history, from the strikes in the 70s and 80s, the discounting wars in the latter part of the 80s and finally the gradual disappearance of many of the petrol stations to make way for property development.
Did this come about because petrol stations were not profitable enough to keep many going? Or was it the companies themselves who thought they could control the market by having less of them?
I don’t think it was too long ago that as a motorist you could travel from one petrol station that was advertising too high a price for its petrol to another which was a short journey up the highway. Not any more. In most areas – and I was caught recently by this – if you are running low on petrol you have no choice. There may not be another petrol station for eight or ten kilometres.
In recent months, I have seen extremely long queues in some petrol stations, particularly on certain days where the prices have dropped a few cents a litre. There has been little commentary I notice from those who peddle the market-driven economy philosophy. There are now far less petrol stations and we are left with them dictating the price.
Where are all the market driven economists on this issue? I haven’t heard any of them speak.
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