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Fuel companies in Brisbane lifted petrol prices earlier this week in a move the RACQ claims was unjustified. Picture: NewsWire \/ John Gass <\/p>\n Fuel companies in Brisbane lifted petrol prices earlier this week in a move the RACQ claims was unjustified. Picture: NewsWire \/ John Gass <\/p>\n
Petrol retailers are crisis profiteering and unjustifiably hiking prices at least five to 10 cents a litre across the country, the NRMA claims.<\/p>\n
As the conflict in Iran lifts global wholesale fuel prices about 10c per litre, the national motorists\u2019 group says service stations have hiked prices well above the wholesale increase.<\/p>\n
NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said on Friday fuel retailers were already maximising their margins before the US and Israel began bombing Iran on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane in particular, we were already at the top of the cycle. They were already charging the peak amount at $2.13 when the wholesale price was $1.53,\u201d he told Sunrise.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wholesale price has gone up 10 cents a litre. They\u2019ve put their prices up even further, and they\u2019re refusing to come down. They\u2019re using a crisis to make money, and it\u2019s got to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Concerns about impending hikes in petrol prices have already prompted a flurry of buying across Australia. Picture: NewsWire \/ John Gass <\/p>\n
Global oil prices \u2013 inflated by the military conflict \u2013 typically took seven to 10 days to flush through to Australian petrol prices, Mr Khoury said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen is those prices go up when they shouldn\u2019t have, and they went up too quickly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe public are reporting them, and so there is more that they can do. They\u2019ll drop their prices if you put a bit of pressure on them.\u201d<\/p>\n
NewsWire has recorded a 58c-per-litre hike from Monday to Thursday at one major retailer in Sydney and approached the company for comment.<\/p>\n
The consumer watchdog issued a warning to fuel retailers on Friday.<\/p>\n
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says it \u201cwill not hesitate to take action\u201d against price gouging.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe international price of refined petrol is a key driver of Australian retail petrol prices,\u201d ACCC commissioner Anna Brakey said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile these international costs are largely outside the control of local petrol retailers, we remind retailers that making false or misleading statements to consumers about the reasons of price increases would be in breach of the Australian Consumer Law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the consumer watchdog has the powers to investigate petrol price changes. Picture: NewsWire \/Martin Ollman <\/p>\n
The consumer watchdog had written to the fuel retailers telling them not to falsely blame the conflict for price increases, Ms Brakey said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ACCC will not hesitate to take action if representations and market behaviour by a petrol company contravene competition and consumer laws,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have written to major fuel companies to set out our expectations about domestic fuel pricing as these international events unfold.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this time, as at any time, we encourage motorists to use fuel price apps and websites to shop around to find the lowest prices.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Thursday, federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers said motorists should not be taken for mugs by the fuel companies, as RACQ reports \u201cunwarranted\u201d hikes at the bowser to the consumer watchdog.<\/p>\n
Story continues <\/p>\n
As the war in Iraq now involves 16 countries, the economic concerns mount for the Australian government, with allegations fuel companies have begun to hike petrol prices seven days into the conflict.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Thursday, Mr Chalmers said motorists should not be taken for mugs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want to see people taken for mugs at the bowser,\u201d he told the ABC.<\/p>\n
\u201cService stations should not be doing the wrong thing by their customers, using the conflict in Iran, and the Middle East more broadly, as an excuse to gouge customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Motorists are being taken for mugs, the Treasurer says. Picture: NewsWire \/ John Gass <\/p>\n
As well as Iran and Israel\u2019s closest neighbours, the UK has now been pulled into the conflict after an Iranian drone struck a UK military base in Cyprus, and France has sent antimissile and anti-drone systems to the island.<\/p>\n
The widening conflict has moderately pushed up global oil prices and began to spark some pulses of petrol panic buying across Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key determinant of the impact on the economy will be the duration of this conflict,\u201d Mr Chalmers said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis conflict is now bigger and broader. It\u2019s no longer a matter of days, it\u2019s a matter of weeks at least and potentially longer. And so that will have implications for the global economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor our economy, as a consequence, we\u2019re already seeing big movements on oil markets, for example, and European gas markets.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Treasurer said some of the domestic petrol price hikes seen this week were part of the usual price cycle, but added the consumer watchdog had the power to monitor the service station companies and fuel retailers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve empowered the ACCC to get to the bottom of what\u2019s happening at service stations around the country. Obviously, there are concerning developments on global oil markets but also at local service stations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
RACQ has reported alleged petrol price gouging in Queensland to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.<\/p>\n
Royal Automobile Club of Queensland principal economist Ian Jeffreys said hikes in the sunshine state capital were unjustified.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the beginning of the week, the highest price we were seeing was $2.13.9 per litre.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the time, that was between 50 to 60 cents above the average wholesale price. And we saw no reason why prices would increase any further,\u201d he told the ABC on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, on Tuesday morning, one of the majors pushed their prices up to $2.19.9-per litre.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere wasn\u2019t a massive increase in the wholesale price earlier in the week, and this increase was unwarranted in our view.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the short term, conflict in the oil-rich region has some overall benefits for the Australian economy. Since the US and Israel began bombing Iran on Saturday, the Australian dollar has risen 1.4 per cent against the Euro.<\/p>\n
\u201cAUD\/EUR has increased because Australia is a net energy exporter while Europe is a net energy importer,\u201d Commonwealth Bank global analyst Samara Hammoud said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEurope, however, is not heavily reliant on oil from the Middle East. Only around 11 per cent of the major European economies\u2019 oil imports are from the region.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crucial Strait of Hormuz shipping lane, which about 20 per cent of global oil exports traverse, has been severely limited.<\/p>\n
\u201cEnergy prices have spiked since the start of the conflict amid concerns over disrupted supply,\u201d Ms Hammoud said.<\/p>\n
\u201cVessel\u2011tracking data show supertankers diverting toward the Atlantic Basin. The volume of trade through the Strait (of Hormuz) has already dropped sharply from around 5.5 million metric tons to less than 1 million metric tons.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn addition, LNG flows from the Middle East are effectively offline until both Ras Laffan \u2014 the world\u2019s largest export complex \u2014 and Hormuz reopen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fuel companies in Brisbane lifted petrol prices earlier this week in a move the RACQ claims was unjustified.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,108672,164,260179,260178,5575,42086,260177,257919,130869,95315,224790,260176],"class_list":{"0":"post-521668","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-consumer-watchdog","12":"tag-economy","13":"tag-fuel-companies","14":"tag-fuel-retailers","15":"tag-iran","16":"tag-jim-chalmers","17":"tag-peter-khoury","18":"tag-petrol-price","19":"tag-petrol-prices","20":"tag-price-gouging","21":"tag-service-stations","22":"tag-wholesale-price"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}