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Australia’s petrol bowsers have been press-ganged into the Iran conflict with retailers across Sydney not even waiting for the blood to dry before they begin war-profiteering.
More than half the petrol stations in the nation’s biggest cities have hiked their prices for regular unleaded by 5¢ to 10¢ per litre, analysis shows, even as the Albanese government warned the industry that price-gouging will not be tolerated.
But the stark reality is that there is little to stop the rort.
Petrol, diesel and automotive LPG prices are deregulated, and the market determines prices. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is largely restricted to monitoring fuel prices to prevent anti-competitive conduct such as price-fixing and collusion between sellers and publishing prices in hope of embarrassing miscreants.
But it is an unabashed industry.
Only last Monday, three days after the US and Israel started a war aimed at regime change in Iran, the NRMA’s Peter Khoury said oil prices were set to rise by 10 per cent, but added that it shouldn’t affect petrol prices in Australia for at least a week.
That afternoon, petrol stations started jacking up their prices.
By Wednesday, the NRMA estimated half the servos in Sydney and Melbourne were charging between 217.9 and 223.9¢ per litre. There are reports that fuel prices are already soaring to nearly $4 per litre in some remote parts of the country.
The Australian fuel industry’s risible term for ever-changing costs – price cycles – has been creeping upward since February, and the cost of refined fuels on global markets had risen sharply this week.
Panic-buying quickly started and long queues formed at servos across Sydney as concerns mounted that the Strait of Hormuz, where one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes through daily, would remain shut as the conflict continued and caused sustained price rises.
Australia has a 34-day supply of diesel and a 36-day supply of unleaded petrol, not including what is already in the retail network.
Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association chief executive Rowan Lee told the ABC that Australia’s oil supply would not run out even if the Strait of Hormuz remained closed.
“Over half our fuel comes out of Singapore, and that is fed in by oil that comes out of South Korea, Japan, Brunei, Malaysia and India,” he said.
So it’s hard not to see the price hikes as war-profiteering.
The world has been experiencing oil crises since the 1973 Yom Kippur War prompted Arab oil-producing nations to reduce output. Since then, and at every subsequent war, Australian motorists have watched helplessly as petrol prices leapt ahead like trained dolphins.
And when the fighting stopped, prices turned into trained tortoises, taking weeks to reflect the decline in oil prices.
We have learnt little. Craven companies continue to gouge Australian consumers with little consequence. The situation demands a government rethink about supply, regulation and enforcement. Despite the huffing and puffing about this week’s price-gouging, we fear little will be done. It is highway robbery.
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