Fuel prices are already soaring to nearly $4 per litre in some parts of Australia \u2013 with fears it will climb higher as the Middle East conflict continues to its fourth day. <\/p>\n
Remote parts of Northern Territory, including Ramingining located 560 km east of Darwin in Arnhem Land, are currently paying $3.99 per litre for diesel. <\/p>\n
Another community in Arnhem Land, Milingimbi are also paying $3.95 per litre. <\/p>\n
Industry Minister Tim Ayres has accused the Coalition of being \u201cpolitical war profiteers\u201d whose scare-mongering led to panic fuel-buying.<\/p>\n
While fuel prices have increased since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, multiple cities in Australia reported panic buying and queues outside petrol stations earlier in the week.<\/p>\n
In a fiery response during question time on Wednesday, Mr Ayres said Australia\u2019s fuel reserve were in the best position they had been at in 15 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cScaremongering \u2013 far right, extremist scaremongering \u2013 over there created people lining up at petrol stations when there was no need,\u201d Mr Ayres said, referring to the Opposition\u2019s side of the Senate chamber.<\/p>\n
Turning to the Greens on the cross bench, he said \u201cpeople over there talk about war profiteers\u201d, before turning back to the Coalition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis show over here are political war profiteers,\u201d he said of the Opposition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey love creating a sense of crisis. They love creating a sense of drama, and they are unashamed about their hopelessly partisan approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Ayres accused the former Morrison government of \u201cdoing more than any other government\u201d to undermine Australia\u2019s energy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dimmest bulbs in that government then came to occupy the front bench during the course of the last term,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd, the architects of last term\u2019s genius economic policy \u2013 the low-watt, dim-wattage bulbs \u2013 now are in charge now. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe shadow ERC (Expenditure Review Committee) of last term are the geniuses who are now in charge of driving this show right over a cliff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senator Bridget McKenzie shot back that Labor had \u201cno plan\u201d, before being called to order. <\/p>\n
It comes as petrol stations across the country are slammed for charging Aussies \u201cunjustifiable\u201d prices for fuel amid the US-Iran conflict. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is just a ridiculous price when we are in the middle of this conflict and we know things are going to get worse,\u201d NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said.<\/p>\n
The NRMA has called on the ACCC to clamp down on inflated pricing for fuel, with half of the service stations across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane charging almost $2.20 a litre. <\/p>\n
Treasurer Jim Chalmers earlier said he had written to the ACCC to ensure service stations \u201cdon\u2019t do the wrong thing\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want service stations to take advantage of people,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe understand that there will be movements in the market, but people, retailers cannot be taking people for mugs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Know who you are\u2019<\/p>\n
Mr Khoury said the servos and operators who are inflating prices \u201cknow who they are\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis must stop immediately.\u201d <\/p>\n
According to NRMA it takes \u201c7-10 days\u201d for increased oil prices to flow through down under. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s why you know NRMA has put this warning out today because we know it hasn\u2019t been 7 to 10 days,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe price cycles in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne have left families in those<\/p>\n
cities worse off and oil companies are using the Middle East crisis as an excuse to jack up<\/p>\n
margins,\u201d Mr Khoury said.<\/p>\n
Aussies have flocked to servos across the country to stock up on petrol, with fuel prices expected to skyrocket in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
Mr Khoury urged people to use the My NRMA App to ensure they are aware of the best price and the \u201ccheapest option\u201d. <\/p>\n
The NRMA says the average price for regular unleaded per litre across the country is:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Sydney 209.5c<\/p>\n
\u2022 Melbourne 207.7c \u2022 Brisbane 210.2c\u2022 Adelaide 185.0c\u2022 Perth 189.1c<\/p>\n
About 20 per cent of the world\u2019s oil and gas is shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, a shipping lane on Iran\u2019s southern border that has now been effectively closed. <\/p>\n
As a result, fuel prices have spiked globally as the conflict in the Middle East continues onto its fourth day and concerns grow over how long it will last. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fuel prices are already soaring to nearly $4 per litre in some parts of Australia \u2013 with fears…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[8383,576,986,138097,151798,151804,72,151787,113,151789,63615,151803,61,151797,11829,60,3410,50761,151782,151792,151801,20112,151781,7891,151799,89582,61145,20673,151795,151783,151794,150947,151784,151786,151785,151791,151793,151800,151796,3872,151790,42835,151802,151788],"class_list":{"0":"post-328403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-asia","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","12":"tag-bridget-mckenzie","13":"tag-brutal-sledge","14":"tag-business","15":"tag-cheapest-fuel-price","16":"tag-economy","17":"tag-fuel-hike-loomsmetro","18":"tag-fuel-prices","19":"tag-fuel-reserve","20":"tag-ie","21":"tag-inflated-pricing","22":"tag-iran","23":"tag-ireland","24":"tag-israel","25":"tag-jim-chalmers","26":"tag-john-appleyard","27":"tag-john-gass","28":"tag-nathan-schmidt","29":"tag-new-south-wales","30":"tag-newswire-news","31":"tag-north-america","32":"tag-northern-america","33":"tag-oceania","34":"tag-oil-companies","35":"tag-oil-prices","36":"tag-panic-buying","37":"tag-people-queue","38":"tag-peter-khoury","39":"tag-petrol-prices","40":"tag-petrol-stations","41":"tag-political-war-profiteers","42":"tag-price-cycles","43":"tag-senate-chamber","44":"tag-service-stations","45":"tag-shipping-lane","46":"tag-southern-asia","47":"tag-sydney","48":"tag-tum-ayres","49":"tag-united-states-of-america","50":"tag-war-hits-bowsers","51":"tag-western-asia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}