Rudd announces fuel scheme
April 15, 2008 by Matt Brogan
Under a scheme announced by the Rudd government today, all fuel stations will have to reveal prices 24 hours in advance and motorists will be able to determine fuel prices in beforehand by signing up to SMS, toll free hotline or email alerts.
The scheme which is based on the ‘FuelWatch’ initiative from WA will force fuel station operators to notify the ACCC of their prices daily, but only when they intend on changing their price the following day.
Prime Minister Rudd admits that the scheme is not without its flaws and will take some time to implement, but hopes it will ensure motorists are not paying any more than they have to at the pump. He also advises the scheme consists of three main aspects.
“The ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) will be notified each day at around 2pm by retailers across the country, as to their proposed price for the following 24-hour period, that is, for the next day.”
“Secondly, petrol retailers will be required to adhere to that price for that period of time.”
“Thirdly, the ACCC will then place that information in a manner which is available to the public, to the consumers, right across the country, by email, by toll-free telephone number and/or by other mechanisms as well.”
It is hoped, broadly speaking, that the scheme will bring consistency and transparency to an industry that has grown a lot of mistrust in recent times and eventually help avoid sharp rises during peak times. The scheme applies to all fuel types.
Print it: 
Since I’ve been driving on LPG i haven’t had to worry about the price cycle because the oil companies don’t feel the need to play the same games with the LPG prices!!!!
BASTARD!!!
There goes the discount cycle!
This will cost anyone who understands the discount cycle a lot of money. Effectively it stiffles the cycle so that the lower end of the cycle is higher and the cycle is generally longer. What that means is that on week I will pay about 2 cents per litre more and the next will be 5 cpl more.
These idiots have NFI.
The average twit out there who just fills up when the needle says empty will generally benefit though – probably all Labor voters too!
yea right on there bret! after all it is a labour government remember…
I dont understand the cycle concept well… in theory thought I thought this could be a positive. By making them reveal prices in advance consumes have the choice to choose between petrol stations in advance, creating greater competition in the market and thus lower prices.
why cant the government simply cut the fuel tax by half, it would mean immediate benefits for all motorists ;) Instead they would rather waste some more of our money on bullshit schemes that wont work… wishfull thinking ey lol. you would think they’re already getting enough out of stamp duty taxes from us motorists.. soon just driving will become a luxury let alone owning a nice car.
Paul,
Yep thats the theory, but in reality it does not work for those that buy at the low end of the cycle.
WA is the only example, and it proves my point. Perth often have a lower monthly AVERAGE than adelaide, but the LOWEST price is always 2cpl more in Perth.
The cycle seems to be longer as well, which means that if you need to fill up weekly then every second week you will pay about 5 cpl more than the current discount cycle.
For the “tanks empty fill up now” crowd they will probably gain slightly, and this is the propaganda BS that the Govt is using.
Why did people vote him in, his a Hack, SMS? whats he thinking i feel like a school kid only out of school there is more rules here than Communist china!!
BMWsauberF1 not by half but even 3% would be graet! he does not think this Rud. Were all doomed.
Oh dear. I’m the Labor voter that Bret refers to. I fill up when empty. Why? Because I don’t include watching fuel price cycles as one of my hobbies. There are more important things in life.
Go to Bunnings.
Golf,
So you’re not interested in saving $8 – $10 a week per car? OK.
I’ll take my $900 and go to Bunnings – every year. Or maybe pay a couple of terms worth of school fees, or those dance classes for my kids.
Good for you if you can’t be botherd filling up on a Teusday evening or Wednesday morning to/from work – I mean its really haaard. Timing you fill to the weekly cycle ain’t a chore.
Who “watches” the cycles, they don’t change week to week – every Wednesday pm up go the prices, end of story (and no, long weekends don’t change it either, despite what the media want you to believe)
Id hope it would help competition. My local servos are rip off merchants. 7ks down the road in the next town fuel is 10c per litre cheaper at the same chain of fuel retailer on the same day.
Go to Bunnings.
Buy some wood.
Build a bridge.
Get over it.
Hey CA, what’s the go with the Pommie petrol station pic?
Golf,
ive told you before that sourcing your wood from bunnings to build this bridge is a challenge in itself
Carl,
mate LPG prices are ridiculous!!!!
it now costs me $40 bucks to fill up ha ha ha ha
SSSSHHHHHHHHH
dont tell the petrol commuters here it may make tham cry
VW_Freak, I was wondering when someone would ask :) Basically I had it on file so it was more a convenience thing than anything else.
was waiting for you to notice, AndrewM :)
Andrew M, SOME petrol users make fun of LPG users and put us down like we are lower class but the truth is that when they’re at the pump next to us with basically the same car or with a car that’s much smaller they all wish they had the balls to go LPG!!!!!…..but lets not tell too many people or else it might become too popular…LOL
This has been going on here in Perth since 2001. Each fuel station gives their price for tomorrow at 2.00pm today to FuelWatch, Fuelwatch then emails me the prices of all the fuel stations in the suburbs i selected and the suburbs surrounding. I can then read the email and decide wether to buy my fuel tonight or wait till tomorrow. Fuelwatch also tells the average price, when a new price cycle is occurring and when is the best day to purchase fuel. They do this for every type of fuel from LPG, BioDiesel to RON108 PULP. The fact that perth has the lowest average price of fuel in the whole country is evidence this works. The morons that are saying this is a bad idea because their price cycle hypothesis and then saying Ruddles is a NFI knob cheese, have no idea about the definition of a competitive market. A market with free information that is known to everyone. The more competitive the market the cheaper the price. Read a book called “economics for pre-schoolers and winging losers”.
Cant help but think schemes like this make collusion EASIER for the oil companies. Especially when the margins of some stations are so low they need to get approval of the oil companies to lower the price by more than a few cents.
Well Iam also getting a hydrogen kit fitted on my BF LPG ute which will increase fuel economy up around 50% as friend fitted one to his 4WD and he is stunned at economy. I will keep you informed of this as LPG is quite dear at around 79cents a litre now around Coffs Harbour! The Government is full of BS and its not fair that prices vary wildly where Iam.
hydrogen kit? i didnt know could fit them to a regular engine, or even get one yet…
Rural Victoria is probably like rural anywhere in Australia, there is no cycle in prices!!!!! They just keep rising and on the very odd occasion they drop by a few cents, usually a week or so after the world prices have hit a low point.
Melbourne newspapers were screaming shock and horror at U/L hitting $1.50 cpl a week ago, the price in this end of the woods has been $1.60 for the last month or so and diesel is currently 20 cpl dearer than U/L. The reason is simple, no competition for the 2 retailers here and 45 klm drive to the next servo.
Will Rudd’s scheme help anyone not in a city? no way known, its not even worth the half arsed thought that went into creating it. !!!!
WILL BE INTERESTING TO SEE IF THINGS CHANGE, THERE ARE 3 STATIONS AND THERE THE BIG 3 ALL IN A ROW IN DANDENONG AND MOST OF THE TIME THERE THE CHEAPEST IN MELBOURNE.
I CANT SEE IT WORKING OUT FOR THE BETTER.
WE WILL STILL BE GETTING SCREWED (_(_)(_0_)(_)_)
so petrol in australia is a joke, we pay a silly amount on tax.. and then get taxed on that
we all know this. the goverment is making squilliants
and the oil companies are making BILLIONS
none of this is knew. but why the goverment thinks 2c a litre will ease the burdon on people i dont know. maybe its because they dont have to pay for petrol, they dont understand it.
diesel is cheaper to produce than petrol. yet sold higher….. petrol is CRAZY cheap to produce. but we still import alot of it..gas ..well we produce more gas than anywhere else int he world. except we decide to export it to china, who then sells it back to us at a higher price
cheap petrol days are gone………..they are making to much money. id say invest in a cheap to run car now… because 5 years from now we’ll be justl ike europe… paying 1 pound a litre or more
cookie
Yeh this sounds like another ruddiculous idea. Everyone seems happy to pay Amart 200% to 500% profit margin one their t-shirts etc. Yet everyone is up in arms over the price of petrol where the retailer only makes about 1% profit. I think the retailer should be able to sell it at whatever price they want to. We will still buy it if we need it.
How do you force petrol companies to lower their prices. Don’t buy as much petrol and start to use public transport. It’s when people don’t buy a product that the price of the product drops. What do you think Myers/David Jones sales are all about. They sell what no one has bought through that particular product cycle.
Instead of driving into work every day, drive in every second day, saving about 20-30% of fuel and of course buying less.
You might say that public transport is bad. Remember this, whether directly or indirectly the State Governments are involved in the public transport game. You can always kick a government out, try and get the CEO of and oil company kicked out.
I forgot to add: Some might say that if less people buy petrol then the petrol companies will increase the price of petrol to compensate for the loss of revenue. Can’t do that, ACCC and of course this new wiz bang plan of the Government.
Minnow said
“The fact that perth has the lowest average price of fuel in the whole country is evidence this works”
Except Minnow that is just Ruddspeak – it is NOT actually true.
EG. for January Perth had one of the highest and the “low” price in Perth was the DEAREST Australia wide. The cheapest price in Adelaide was 3.2 cpl cheaper than the cheapset in Perth.
February is worse: Adelaide cheapest was 3.2 cpl less than Perth but the average for the month, Adelaide was 6.1 cpl LESS than Perth.
Minnow, Perth is the perfect example of how the system will does NOT WORK and will screw the average motorist, who follows the discount cycle.
Please look into some facts before just sprouting Rudd rhetoric.
total RUBBISH
This is just something to make it look like the government is doing something about petrol prices, when in fact its doing bugger all. The ONLY way for the government to directly lower fuel prices is to reduce the percentage of tax we pay with each litre of fuel. They wont because they know with every increase in in petrol their cut gets bigger. The government is as greedy as the oil companies.
Both the state & federal governments need to lower the percentage of the excess by just 5%
I don’t know why there is such a cry for the tax component of the fuel prices to be lowered. Since when has the private sector EVER passed on a tax saving created by a government?
Within weeks the discount given by the Government would be absorbed as price rises in fuel prices, which would take back what the tax discount gave. All we would end up doing is emptying the fed coffers and passing the money to the oil companies instead.
Now if you want to argue what the government does with the money it collects – thats a different story. I think it should be mandotory for the money to be spent on roads, driver education (NOT speed cameras) and public transport infrastructure.
Dan
I have not read or heard anyone argue for a reduction in the amount of fuel purchased. We as consumers have the control. I have reduced my use of fuel by 50%. How? I use public transport when ever possible, I only use my biggish car (3.5 litre manual) when driving over long continuous sections of road and use my small car (1.6 litre manual) over stop start driving. I try to arrange my driving to maximise my cars on their most economical levels. I don’t chase discounts at Coles or Safeways as I have found their petrol (Shell and Caltex) of a lower grade of fuel. BP and Mobil give me the best fuel consumption in my cars. I could go on, but the underlying fact is we as the consumers have the control. What we need to do is change our life style to use less of the cars and more alternative ways. Business claims fuel as a tax deduction we can’t.
As has been pointed out, Government are not going to set up something that will reduce their tax take. And for those people who use gas, note it is getting dearer and dearer and of course you use about 3 to 4 litres extra per kilometre.
Naughtyius Maximus,
Please keep us informed on that Hydrogen on demand pack that your installing because I’ve seen it advertised on the net usually from the US but have not been convinced however am willing to hear evidence from people that don’t have a vested interest in selling me one to see if it really works!!!!
Good luck to you and hope for all our sakes it’s not a scam.
Im with carl,
NM that hydrogen set up sounds interesting. i didnt know that stuff was out yet. where do you get info on it? sounds like an interesting read……….
what a poor judge of economy.
so now inorder to find the cheapest fuel and save 2 cents per litre or to save around $1.50 a week, it is best to subscribe to an SMS service that sends you fuel prices daily at a cost of .50c/SMS 7 days a week.
so there fore it costs you like $3.50 to ensure you arent paying 2 cents per litre too much at the pump???????
heres a riddle, what do you get for voting for rudd? dumb ass ideas like this where he thinks people will benefit, but in reality hes just being a publicity ho! my consience is clear i voted for libs. leave it how it is people know how the cycle works and suffer if they dont.
Rudd deadset is a clown on how he goes on and his PR puppeteering like a Bollywood star jetsetting everywhere!
No lows, no highs but a higher overall average price especially if the stations can’t move the price down to compete after 2.00pm in the arvo. They should be allowed to change the price dwn if they want once the price has been set for the day. Station should be able to only set an upper price limit.
Hey give the Ruddmyster a break he’s got Kate Blanchet, Nichole Kidman,Hugh Jackman and other intellectuals attending that two day Rudd fest. They will sort it out!!!
His managed to piss the Chinese off but then again they own Chery so probably not such a bad thing! Ha Ha ha. What are they going to do not export all their shit products to us?
….and u know what?
working f@#$@$%n families urgghhhh!!!!
HELL THIS SITE IS QUIET AT THE MOMENT …………….WAKE UP EVERYONE…………..
Milky bars for every one………from the Milkybar Kid……..geez guys where are you all? Check ya emails Im back !!!!!!!!
Lower fuel prices:
1)Fragment the market – legislate to prevent any single fuel supply company controlling too big a share of the market
2)Lower barriers to entry – make it easy for independents to access low cost imported fuel.
3)Transparency – ensure the public know where the cheapest fuel is. (Rudd’s proposal)
4)Break the Coles/Safeway supermarket duopoly – make em earn their grocery customers by offering deeper fuel discounts..
Change your lifestyle and buy less fuel!
Marketmaker,
i always find the independants to be cheaper as it is
Should we really be comparing fuel prices across different Australian cities?
The shipping costs would be different for each capital city so I don’t think it’s statistically valid to compare fuel prices anyway. In Perth we only have 1 oil refinery that supplies the whole state – this would have more of an impact on the average price than the fuelwatch scheme in my opinion.
Having used the fuelwatch scheme, I don’t think it’s a bad idea… you still have a price cycle, and it’s handy as you can check tomorrows prices of fuel at any bowser anywhere in the state.
Bret, the reports i’ve read came out before ruddles was the pm, start of last year to be exact. Things may have changed since then. And we still have a price cycle, petrol is still always cheaper on a tuesday! I got petrol this tuesday for 1.32 at Gull. You have to take into account perth is quite far from everywhere else and therefore will have its own small market now dominated by caltex, shell and bp. The main problem will be with the main retailers offering those “discounts” which sometimes actually sometimes sell fuel cheaper than what the small servo can buy fuel at.
Please leave the political crap out of it. 1 year ago the media would have been saying fuelwatch was helping fuel prices be the lowest in the country. Now all of a sudden fuelwatch is the reason perths prices are the highest. I dont put it down to fuelwatch being the cause behind average prices here being higher for a month and half in perth compared to everywhere else.
Im sure Rudd has plenty of other schemes up his sleeve,to play on the aussie public to get more money from us.At the same time sell us out to China.He’s a fake
Alec, he’s not a fake. 73% of the nation approves him as PM, with just 9% wanting Brenny Boy instead. And the majority of people voted for him.
In five short months, he’s done a swag of things that were just too hard for the previous government. This is another.
The country’s going places all of a sudden, Alec. You can jump in or you can stand at the door with your arms folded and a sulky frown on your face and pouting “NO!” whilst your brothers and sisters are already seated and belted up…just waiting for you.
Golf – Did you know Chinese companys sponsered him for 16 overseas trips,so far and counting.Preparing to sell us down the river in the future,wait and see