Iran war live updates:<\/a> For the latest news on the Middle East crisis read our blog.<\/p>\n Economists have warned inflation could peak above 5 per cent as fuel prices rise, with some bowsers already showing prices of up to $2.59 a litre for diesel in some places.<\/p>\n And while consumers<\/a> and businesses<\/a> are feeling the pain, the ACCC is keeping a close eye on dealings to ensure price hikes are justified.<\/p>\n Motorists are stockpiling fuel as prices go up and shortages hit. (ABC News: John Gunn)<\/p>\n The watchdog has written to fuel companies requesting information about their fuel reserves and the prices they are charging.<\/p>\n ACCC deputy chair Mick Keogh said the consumer body was ensuring everything was above board.\u00a0<\/p>\n “We’re going to understand if those prices [in Australia] seem out of all kilter with the sorts of international trends that we’re seeing,” he said.<\/p>\n Mr Keogh said the ACCC was also watching to see whether companies were acting fairly.<\/p>\n “There may also be situations where anti-competitive behaviour is occurring,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n “For example, an importer no longer supplying independents and only supplying their own outlets.”<\/p>\n Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen said Australia had good stock levels of petrol, diesel, and jet fuel, but acknowledged the country was facing a surge in demand.<\/p>\n Mr Keogh said Australia consumed about twice as much diesel as petrol. \u00a0<\/p>\n Mick Keogh says the ACCC is investigating if fuel price rises are fair. (ABC News: John Gunn)<\/p>\n Panic buying drains fuel supply<\/p>\n On the New South Wales Mid North Coast, the Glenreagh General Store is the only source of fuel in town.<\/p>\n “We sold out in two days,” store owner Terry Powick said.\u00a0<\/p>\n “We’ve owned the business now for two and a half years [and] I’ve never sold out in two days.<\/p>\n “I think it’s just a lot of panic buying coming out.”<\/p>\n Mr Powick is expecting a small delivery of diesel and unleaded fuel today.<\/p>\n Terry Powick is hoping for a fuel delivery today. (Supplied: Terry Powick)<\/p>\n In the NSW north-west, the Croppa Creek Store is prioritising essential services at the bowser.<\/p>\n “The rationale behind it is to keep a wider variety of people rolling, so that we can not so much ration out the fuel, but just allow it to be fairly dispersed,” store owner Carolyn Bellman said.<\/p>\n “[But] there’s a lot of essential businesses that rely on the fuel here.”<\/p>\n Carolyn Bellman is trying to share the fuel supplies around. (Supplied: Carolyn Bellman)<\/p>\n Victorian orchardist Andrew Plunkett said he was caught “on the hop” by how quickly fuel prices went up.<\/p>\n “In the last week, it’s around 50 cents [more] on the wholesale price for us,” he said.<\/p>\n Mr Plunkett grows and packs fruit on his property near Shepparton, before trucking the bulk of it to Sydney and Brisbane.<\/p>\n He gets up to 30,000 litres of diesel delivered to his place at a time, and at the latest price, he will be paying “$10,000 to $20,000” more per week.<\/p>\n Apples grown at Plunkett Orchards are sent to supermarket distribution centres in Sydney and Brisbane. (ABC Rural: Justine Longmore)<\/p>\n And it is not a cost Mr Plunkett can pass on easily.<\/p>\n “Our costs that we arrive at with supermarkets is based on delivery to [distribution centres] in each of those capital cities,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Unfortunately, for the time being, we’re absorbing all of it.”<\/p>\n Additional reporting by Claire Simmonds<\/a>, James Paras<\/a> and Warwick Long<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is monitoring increasing fuel prices and sales across Australia as costs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[11275,264082,264084,64,63,99,5517,164,130870,189039,264083,176059,95315,19143],"class_list":{"0":"post-531831","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-accc","9":"tag-anti-competitive-behaviour","10":"tag-apple-grower","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-business","14":"tag-diesel","15":"tag-economy","16":"tag-fuel-prices","17":"tag-motorists","18":"tag-orchardist","19":"tag-petrol-station","20":"tag-price-gouging","21":"tag-price-hike"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531831","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=531831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773177131_75_bf93b917e690bc4697418dbff616174e.jpeg\")
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