A range of petrol prices around Canberra on Monday, 4 May, after Chief Minister Andrew Barr’s threat of legislation. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr is claiming victory over the fuel price gougers, citing new data showing Canberra has the lowest average petrol price in Australia.
According to the Australian Institute of Petroleum (AIP) Weekly Price report, the weekly unleaded average for the week ending 17 May for the ACT was 101.6 cents per litre.
This was cheaper than all major cities across the country, including Sydney which on average was 12 cents a litre higher.
Late last month Mr Barr threatened retailers with the big stick of legislating to enforce a retail margin if prices did not fall in line with other markets and the wholesale level. It came in an environment of falling demand due to the COVID-19 shutdown and record low crude oil prices.
The Chief Minister has the power to determine the maximum wholesale price, retail price and retail margin of fuel on the recommendation of the fair trading commissioner.
Mr Barr wrote to every major petrol retailer in Canberra demanding an explanation as to why prices had dropped in other major metropolitan cities such as Sydney but not across the ACT.
He gave them until Sunday, 3 May to lower prices or be compelled to lower them.
Prices across the major outlets began falling and Mr Barr has not had to resort to that big stick.
Mr Barr said on Monday (18 May) that the average price result was a milestone for Canberra, ”a claim we never expected we’d be making”.
”Canberra motorists often pay higher prices than motorists in other major cities, and it will be a welcome relief to many local families that the price of petrol in the ACT is as low as possible during this difficult period,” he said.
“The ACT Government will continue challenging local petrol stations to keep their prices at or below the Australian national weekly average.”
Metropolitan average prices in Australian capital cities.
Mr Barr also wrote to ACCC Chair Rod Sims requesting that the consumer watchdog investigate petrol prices in the ACT.
“Despite crude oil prices falling to near record lows, and wholesale prices reducing substantially as a result over the last few months, we are not seeing similar outcomes for retail fuel prices in the Territory,” Mr Barr wrote.
“At a time when the economy is being severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and many households are struggling due to job losses and restrictions placed on the community, this outcome is not acceptable.
“Any action taken by the ACCC would help increase pressure on retailers operating in the ACT market to do the right thing and reduce retail prices to a level more commensurate with broader market trends.”
Mr Barr has endured criticism from motorist bodies and the Opposition for not taking measures to dampen fuel prices, including real-time petrol price monitoring, improving business competition, and reducing taxes and charges for operators.
According to the Canberra Liberals, Canberrans pay an average of $450 more for fuel per year than households in NSW.
In February, the government announced a suite of measures to increase competition in the Territory petrol market and ease motorists’ pain at the bowser.
These included plans to establish a petrol price watchdog, attracting more independent operators and potentially extending the FuelCheck price monitoring scheme from NSW.
The government also reached out to independent retailers, saying it will assist them to identify potential sites in the ACT to build new service stations.
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So, this is good news? The last time I filled up, U98 at Costco (currently closed for expansion) was below $1. My wife bought U91 at 88¢ a litre. Try again, Barr. Only some of the voters are as dumb as you think they are.
Keep dreaming!! 😂😂
One swallow does not a summer make....
So who or why would you want to go to act just to buy petrol ⛽️
They didn’t do it before Barr’s “Friday Deadline!” - they waited till Monday...and other states and territories were enjoying the low pricing for many weeks before it fell in ACT region, and that’s only lasted temporarily, as the prices creep up again.
Toothless political stunt. Who knows what the servos received in return...
Gone up by 5c in the last day 😖
Might be time to dust off those adorable “Feel the Power” number-plates – but maybe not use tamper-proof screws to attach them……
Pity he sat on him bum for so long and only chose to do it in an election yeT
Andrew Barr ACT Chief Minister It's interesting how some petrol stations are using their 4 cent discount to achieve the 101.9 price (advertising unleaded e10 at 105.9).
But... they're.... already going back ...up....
Except now that Costco petrol has shut for a month, the price has gone up by at least 6c a litre in 3 days...
That must explain why last time I got petrol it had gone up to 99 cents.
Kylie Wylie except it went up about 20c in Sydney just over a week ago but has come down in Sydney now, but still cheaper here. How do you explain that?
Lmao, wait till the covid crap ends, let's see the prices then.
Prices are slowly rising. Won't last long.
Good outcome....let's see how long it lasts in terms of price parity.
Despite the possibility of this only being a shallow gesture in an election year, this is a good thing that our chief minister has done.
Long overdue that we hold servos accountable for price gouging. Don’t care if they use ACT’s high median salary per capita as a justification for higher fuel prices. It’s still a dodgy practise.
Lowest average price. But in cities with competition you could still get it cheaper during the cycle. Adelaide went down to 70c per litre
now that they publicly tell everyone, they'll put the prices back up. Nice work, Riot
It's about time fuel prices were competitive...I've found it economically feasible to drive to Goulburn to get my car filled.
Gemi Jeffery
Easier and cheaper to fill at Costco
What are you paying in Goulburn? For the last couple of months I have paid between 86cents and 99cents per litre in Canberra. Can you get much cheaper than that in Goulburn to make a trip to Goulburn for no other reason but to buy petrol, worth it?
If your car uses only 6L/100km you're going to be using approx 12L of fuel for that trip. If your car holds 80L, the price would need to be about 18% cheaper to break even on the fuel alone, and all those figures are very conservative, disregard all other running costs and value your time at zero.
How much have you been buying fuel in Goulburn for?
I challenge him to do the same with the RATES!
The issue with Rates is they are high all across the country, it is not an ACT government thing. Why? because everything is so expensive and thats mostly due to federal government policy. The ACT government has to pay the same costs that we all do to get services provided to us all. Also according to the ABS residents of the ACT are paying around the average in state based taxes. So while we like to complain about rates in the ACT, the reality is overall we are still better off, especially with the cheapest electricity also to go with the the great facilities we have here. There would be no other cities of 400,000 people with the facilities we have here.
Gregg Heldon Whilst we don’t own our land legally, for all practical purposes we do. So how do you come up with your conclusion?
The biggest difference when it comes to rates between areas of the country is we pay a state/territory government not a local government entity.
Gregg Heldon that’s nothing to do with rates.
And it has already been announced and published in the Act Gov websites that leases will roll over for an admin fee. The fee isn’t listed but some news articles indicate a fee of around $200 for a residential block.
Gregg Heldon I still fail to see any connection to rates.
Gregg Heldon there is a difference in the ACT but that had nothing to do with the land being leasehold but to do with the fact we don’t have councils so rates go to the territory. But the territory still has to provide the same services as a council and the same services as a state.
Gregg Heldon recycling bins have been “standard” in the ACT for the best part of 20 years!
Barr’s action on petrol prices could have been taken anytime over the last several years. Why now? Oh, that’s right there’s an election coming.