Anger as fuel price soars

DRIVERS lucky enough to find a servo selling unleaded petrol for 139.9 cents a litre or less should fill up now.

Yesterday, more than 60 per cent of Gold Coast service stations hiked the price of unleaded to 159.9 cents a litre, while a further 12 per cent hiked prices to 161.9.

The Gold Coast last exceeded 160 cents a litre on July 19, 2014.

RACQ spokeswoman Renee Smith said the average yesterday was 152.9 cents a litre.

“Although a sharp increase is a part of the southeast Queensland petrol price cycle, there’s no reason for them to be charging this much,” Ms Smith said.

“There are inflated margins right across the supply chain ...

“At a local level, it’s outrageous to think at 161.9 cents per litre, retailers are taking indicative retail margins of 25 cents per litre.”

Last night there was little opportunity to find cheaper fuel, with only 7 per cent of the market selling for 140 cents a litre or less.

Ms Smith said although the global price of oil had impacted Queensland petrol prices, it was “outrageous’’ Gold Coast motorists were payiong such high prices.

“The increase in the oil price is not enough though for fuel companies to hit motorists with prices such as 161.9.”

Griffith University Professor of Economics Tony Makin said high fuel prices would have far-reaching effects.

“It’s going to have a huge impact on the average family’s budget,” Prof Makin said.

“But it will also have more far-reaching effects.

“If it’s high, that will feed through to inflation, the general price of goods and services will go up, merchandise, supermarkets – a lot of goods people buy are delivered by roads and will be impacted by fuel prices.

SAY goodbye to your tax breaks that were announced in the Federal Budget.

You can “thank’’ rising prices at the petrol pump for wiping out that $10 a week promised by Treasurer Scott Morrison.

Readers might recall Craig Mann’s onthe-money cartoon in the Bulletin the morning after the Budget, in which a lineup of characters representing the State Government, councils, power companies, banks, health funds and – you guessed it – the fuel companies reacted in glee to the $10 windfall for the battler in the weekly pay packet. Any raid on tax cuts for low and middle income earners seemed so far off in the future, but the frustrating reality has hit Gold Coast consumers already.

Last week Brisbane motorists were being hit $1.61 a litre for unleaded petrol. Yesterday Coast motorists came down to earth with a thud as fuel costs hit $1.60.

Of course the familiar reasons are being trotted out. There is the usual spike in the petrol price cycle that remains a baffling mystery for motorists, tensions in the Middle East with Donald Trump’s decision to dump the Iran nuclear deal and the furore over the new US embassy in Jerusalem, the rising cost of crude oil, and a decline in the value of the Aussie dollar.

These are understandable – except for the price cycle conundrum – but as the RACQ says, they in no way justify the high prices for fuel in southeast Queensland.

Price monitor FUELtrac recently warned market domination of servos by Shell Coles Express and Woolworths, and a decline in the number of independent retailers were factors in high prices.

Federal and state governments meanwhile do little other than pay lip service. Indeed, fuel taxes are wonderful revenue earners so we should not expect anything more than, for example, the token trial ordered by the State Government of fuel retailers posting real-time prices online.

With wages growth virtually stagnant, price gouging on the Gold Coast is a disgrace and consumers must make their disgust known to federal and state MPs.