petrol inquiry

[mighty_tiger_79]

apparently uncle Johnny has given more powers to the ACC in relation to petrol prices, the inquiry is likely to take upto 4 months.

I guess he has to be seen helping the people in an election year!!!!!!

the only bad thing is in the past 20 yrs there have been 45 petrol enquiry.

[Hondo]

It's a frustrating issue all round

- Everyone knows they collude on pricing
- Everyone knows they profit-take on Fridays / long-weekends, etc

But how you 1) prove it 2) stop it or 3) legislate pricing mechanisms is a whole other issue which could take the ACCC years to get to the bottom of.

One solution might be to make the oil companies publicly state the pricing of the various components of the final pump price (barrell price, exchange rate changes) at any one time. Transparency may make it more obvious to spot the profit taking prices (or more difficult for the oil companies to explain away).

Another might be to make the oil companies set a price which lasts for 1 week rather than fluctuating around the shop like it does.

[mighty_tiger_79]

in WA they have to set the fuel prices a day in advance i believe

[blueandwhite]

Any inquiry into petrol pricing should look into the fact that the Howard government are raking in billions of dollars in excise and gst every year and really are not perturbed about the price of petrol. That we also pay a "double whammy" , ie GST calculated on the excise tax ,obviously doesn't seem to bother them either.

[Psyber]

The truth is governments want petrol prices to rise gradually, not only for the tax revenue, but also to get us used to what it is going to cost in the longer term. A sudden big rise may result in a voter "reaction", but if we gradually get used to it.....

On the other hand, once we get used to higher fuel prices, converting to other fuels like ethanol, vegetable oils for diesels, and perhaps hydrogen burning engines, or hydrogen fuel cells, becomes more acceptable because the cost won't jump suddenly then too.

Of course nuclear power may be the way to produce affordable hydrogen because of the power needs, but we are not all ready for that yet, not until fuel costs rise more.

Myself, I'd like a Lithium fusion generator in the boot to make electricity as fast as I could burn it and an electric motor on each wheel - I wonder how those guys who said they had cracked it are doing now!?

[Hondo]

The truth is governments want petrol prices to rise gradually, not only for the tax revenue, but also to get us used to what it is going to cost in the longer term. A sudden big rise may result in a voter "reaction", but if we gradually get used to it.....

Same goes for Electricity and Water. Both will rise slowly over time because arguably we get both scarce resources very cheaply. Not that I think my ultilities bills are cheap, but taking a bigger picture view and based on reports I have heard about what we probably should be paying. It's such a political hot-potato Govts are loathe to change it suddenly. I think water will be the next one to 'jump' up.

Petrol prices will never go down to what they were ... unfortunately it's only up from here.

Nuclear energy will be with us sooner rather than later to solve some of these problems.

[Psyber]

Bracksy has just announced a doubling of water pricing in Victoria to pay for a desalination plant and pipelines. You are a prophet!!