Brisbane drivers pay about 16 cents a litre more for petrol since subsidy ended a yea

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Brisbane drivers pay about 16 cents a litre more for petrol since subsidy ended a year ago
Robyn Ironside From: The Courier-Mail August 11, 2010 9:19am
BRISBANE drivers are paying an average 16 cents a litre more for petrol since the State Government dumped its 8.3 cents a litre fuel subsidy just over a year ago.

The massive jump in price has been exposed by petrol price watchdog Fueltrac, which found the average price of unleaded has climbed from $1.11 in May 2009 to $1.27 last month.

The figure makes Brisbane the most expensive of the major capital cities for fuel, with Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Perth averaging $1.24 a litre in July.

Fueltrac manager Geoff Trotter said the appointment of a national petrol commissioner after the last federal election had achieved next to nothing for motorists.

``He (the petrol commissioner) is the invisible man,'' Mr Trotter said.

``No one knows his name, not even the Prime Minister and certainly no-one knows what he does.''



He said as well as losing the subsidy, Queensland drivers had seen the discount for ethanol-blended fuel decrease from 3 cents to 2 cents a litre, and the range of petrol prices in each weekly cycle narrow.

``Prices don't go as low as they used to, but they still go as high as they used to,'' Mr Trotter said.

``Instead of a difference of 15 cents a litre from lowest to highest prices, it's more like 10 cents.''

But petrol commissioner Joe Dimasi denied drivers were worse off since his appointment in October 2008, and said he was working towards increasing competition in the Brisbane market.

``We blocked the sale of the Mobil sites to Caltex (in Brisbane) because we thought that would reduce competition and lead to a lessening of the competitive pressure in the market,'' he said.

``The discounting isn't as strong in Brisbane because you don't have as many of the big independents.''

Gary Fites from peak motoring body the RACQ said the State Government's requirement that ethanol-blended fuels account for 5 per cent of oil company sales was likely to make fuel even more expensive.

``When regular unleaded disappears from the market, E10 will be the new benchmark,'' he said.

``That has all sorts of nasty implications as far as pricing is concerned because we'll lose a lot of transparency in the pricing structure.''

Thank you Captain Bligh!!!!