Prime Minister Scott Morrison has demanded the petrol sector act in the best interests of consumers in the face of soaring prices.
Mr Morrison is attempting to pressure the consumer watchdog to take action on petrol companies to give relief to drivers at the bowser.
“It’s in the hands of the fuel companies to do the right thing by their customers and the ACCC and I will be watching very, very carefully,” he said on Tuesday.
While his government continues to wave a “big stick” at energy providers, the PM is putting the fuel industry on notice as prices continue to climb.
At the moment, the average price of unleaded fuel in NSW in $1.57/litre – a record high.
“You head to the bowser to fill up and you just watch that price tick up and up and up,” says Deborah Knight.
Federal Liberal MP Craig Kelly has been campaigning for change to give relief to motorists.
“The cost of petrol’s really hurting across the economy… especially those that live in the outer suburbs.
“What we’ve seen over, basically 12 months, we’ve seen the raw price of crude oil increase about 50 per cent. It’s gone from sort of less than US$50 a barrel up to over US$75 a barrel.
“At the same time, we’ve had a depreciation in the Australian currency against the US dollar.
“So we’ve basically had a double whammy, hitting us on things that are completely outside the control of government.”
Extracted from 2GB