Gougers go under the pump
sumed they must have seen his home was modern and on high ground behind Stanton Hill and not in an area subject to a lot of break- ins.
Even so, he said government charges on insurance including stamp duty and GST meant northern people copped a double whammy.
A 9 per cent State Government stamp duty is charged on premiums and then a 10 per cent federal GST is charged on top.
“If we are paying twice much in North Queensland as as those people in Brisbane then it follows that our stamp duty is twice as much and so is GST,” Mr Chad said.
“We are copping a double whammy as premiums go up.”
Mr Chad said his advice to the ACCC was to move staff into North Queensland to get a better understanding of what was occurring on the ground.
Meanwhile, northern MPs continue to lobby for the creation of a mutual insurer providing cyclone cover, underwritten by the Government. TOWNSVILLE motorists continue to cop it at the bowser, often paying 10c more a litre than their southeast Queensland counterparts.
Herbert MP Cathy O’Toole has been calling for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to conduct an investigation into Townsville petrol prices.
“I’m going to go back to the ACCC and ask them for a regional study into Townsville,” she said.
“In Townsville there are 27 to 30 service stations, there are six in Ayr and in Ingham they have four.
“In both those places fuel is regularly cheaper than in Townsville so there’s clearly something wrong.”
At the moment prices in Townsville and Ayr are on par, despite Ayr’s fuel having to be adjusted to take into account freight charges from the Port of Townsville.
RACQ head of external communications Renee Smith said the motoring body believed the Ayr prices were fair.
“While we have seen Ayr prices much lower than Townsville over the past year, bowser prices are currently both at an average of 129c per litre for ULP,” she said. “We’d like to see prices in Townsville a cent or two a litre cheaper on average, with our Fair Fuel Price for Townsville 127.4c per litre.
“While there is little we can do to influence the price of crude oil, we continue to pressure the fuel industry and the ACCC to keep fuel margins reasonable, and on government to ensure taxes and fuel excise are reasonable.”
An ACCC spokesman said it was aware of the level of community concern about high petrol prices in regional locations like Townsville.
“On the conclusion of the Cairns regional market studies the ACCC will review the overall lessons learned and how they may apply in other regional locations,” he said. The report into Cairns prices found petrol stations in the city made about 38 per cent more profit than the rest of Australia.
“The findings from the Cairns report are likely to be relevant to the Townsville market,” the ACCC spokesman said.
He said fuel prices were often higher in regional locations because of a lower level of competition, lower volumes of fuel sold, distance and location factors and less demand for convenience sales that could let retailers add to their overall profits and keep fuel prices lower.
“These factors, in particular the degree of local competition, may also explain differences in petrol prices between regional locations,” he said.