The last concerted effort to keep ACT petrol prices in line with those in other capitals was back in the 1990s.
The late, and much missed, Terry Connolly was the relevant ACT minister. Since then, reams of official verbiage notwithstanding, the industry here has done much as it has pleased. Government has lazily parroted the claim that higher prices just reflect a ‘‘lack of competition’’, perhaps forgetting that it’s actually government’s duty to promote competition and curtail price gouging.
In reality, with or without assistance from the feds, the ACT government could act to tie petrol prices here to a reference price — something like ‘‘no more than 5¢ a litre above the NSW average’’. It seems to have no qualms about imposing price controls on ACT landlords. It could enact a super-normal profits tax or threaten to raise licensing fees on ACT fuel outlets that charged over the odds.
The ACT government could also release new ACT sites to noted discounters such as Costco. Government also appears unwilling to front Coles (trading as Coles Express) about the way it uses its considerable market power in the ACT petroleum market. Coles has a significant proportion of ACT sites and its market presence is boosted by related commercial tie-ins. The ACCC website lists Coles Express as among the highest price petrol retailers nationally.
Tellingly, the gap between prices here and elsewhere seems to have widened to now about 25¢ a litre just after Woolworths left the national retail petroleum market in November 2018. A coincidence? Maybe.
If the ACT government doesn’t want to legislate to control prices or act to encourage new market entrants, then it should at least tell Coles that that new $69 million development it wants in Dickson won’t be going anywhere fast until ACT petrol prices start to look a lot more like those in Australia’s other mainland capital cities.
Extracted from The Canberra Times