Comments on: VACC wants action on petrol prices

By: Cupid Stunt aka No Name

Cupid Stunt aka No Name — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:02:56 +0000

Funny we’ve seen a 50% decrease in the cost of crude and here (UK) fuel has only dropped 20%. OK even taking into account the exchange rates of 15% fuel is still about 20-25% too expensive. Yep we’re getting conned. I’m off to by some more AA’s for the prius. (Joking)

By: SuperCujo

SuperCujo — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 07:31:11 +0000

J&H: You have been listening to too many crackpots and conspiracy theorists. The water powered car idea has been around for many many years and there has not been one demonstrated and verified properly. In the quantities of water that would be carried on a car, there is simply not enough energy in water to get anywhere. Remember, it takes vast amounts of energy to split the water into its separate components. There has been some progress made in the development of fuel cells that split water but they are still in their infancy.

By: SuperCujo

SuperCujo — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 06:50:25 +0000

What’s with the awaiting moderation thing?

By: DanMan

DanMan — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 05:46:42 +0000

J & H,

Look at wiki / water fueled car for more interesting features on this issue…

By: JEYKL & HYDE

JEYKL & HYDE — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 01:45:24 +0000

supercujo,i agree with your point,but would like to raise the following issue:if tomorrow some wise man comes up with an alternate to petrol,and it would be very safe to assume that this has happened allready,then guess who steps an quickly to buy him out…the oil barons.just think,20 years ago someone had a water powered car,but while the precious oil is continuing to stuff up the WHOLE world,this techology won’t see the light of day.if everbody see’s the oil companys as crooks,its for a reason…imagine if your car/home energy costs were zero.would you consider yourself “free”?

By: SuperCujo

SuperCujo — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 20:47:51 +0000

The petrol companies aren’t overcharging at all. They are charging what the market will pay. It is up to you whether you buy it or not. If petrol was too expensive less people would be buying it, but it seems as though the petrol companies are happy with the current situation.

If you owned a business selling apples and had to sell them at $3.50 a kilo to cover your costs and make a little profit, if you could sell them at $4.00 and make a larger profit with no drop in sales, why wouldn’t you do it?

We live in a free market and the oil companies are under no obligation to sell petrol to you at charity prices, they are allowed to make a profit. The amount of profit they make is up to all of us and our choice to purchase their product.

By: Tranquillizer

Tranquillizer — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 12:19:45 +0000

@Matériel d’insonorisation
cant you see its happening. attack on iraq and conflict with iran, with saudi arabia and kuwait already under control. its all happening for oil or Black Gold what they call in arabia.

By: Minnow

Minnow — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 08:38:45 +0000

Well anyone can get fresh water with enough energy, its still going to be over sources of energy. Could be uranium, who knows…

By: Matériel d'insonorisation

Matériel d'insonorisation — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 08:34:44 +0000

wounder if the next big war will be because of oil or water?

By: Dennis

Dennis — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 07:33:21 +0000

Sad thing is, in reality, there’s very little we can do. Last i heard, OPEC was cutting production to stop the price drop of oil…

By: The Salesman

The Salesman — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 04:57:04 +0000

I think it would work, people power. When we shop for a new car or are getting some work done on the house we shop around and get some quotes. Why can this not be the same?

By: JasonP

JasonP — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 01:38:10 +0000

Salesman, worth a try.

Can you mind my place in the queue?

If I was the “boycotted” station that day, I’d just drop my price thru the floor for a few hours, just to mix things up.

By: RoFlmaTiC

RoFlmaTiC — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 01:14:10 +0000

The Salesman said: “I would like to start a revolution here. We break up Australia into regions, each day an appointed regional negotiator receives by e mail or fax each servo’s best price, then all customers in the region commit to only buying fuel from that station for that day, if the others are to dear they go hungry.”

SOunds like fuelwatch :p

By: DanMan

DanMan — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 00:08:14 +0000

How about we invade some middle east countries to secure ‘our’ rightful supply of black gold.. oh we did that didn’t we?

Hmmm how about we consume less? Oh that’s right we are decadent westerners and we dont understand that… My bad.

How about, as James May suggested, we stop buying other cr@p in our life we dont need to be able to afford something we do need… Might be an idea.

or get a job with a fuel card. LOL

By: Phill

Phill — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 00:00:34 +0000

What we need to do is a bit of the old Divide and Conquer tactics and start a price war between the oil companys by boycotting say all Shell servos for 1 day.The next day boycott all BP for one day and so on,could that work???

By: Ra

Ra — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 23:11:54 +0000

Well after dealing with the TIO & Dept of Fair Trading in the past I can say that the ACCC is like a fart without the smell all you get is a gush of air.

By: Frontman

Frontman — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 22:27:22 +0000

I’m going to go out on a limb here and ask the question. Do you really think the ACCC (a government sponsored and run dept) are actually going to do anything to push the pump price down? I mean really? Considering that the Government (both Federal & State) earn dollars as a percentage rate of the price of Fuel. So the Higher the price, the more they earn. It’s not in their interest to have the fuel price drop. It would upset the ugly ducklings budget forcasts for one, and a certain leader would not be able to spend as much time flying around the world and flying his cabinet meetings to different locations everytime they get bored.
Political parties and persuasions kept out on purpose :-)

By: Glen

Glen — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:48:36 +0000

We should stop importing oil. We import around 25% of our oil so it can be charged at international prices.

By: Al Juraj

Al Juraj — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:33:23 +0000

Oil companies tend to make $1.5M a day for overpricing. In some other countries, when world prices increase, they increase accordingly, but when it decreases, the come up with an excuse saying, “We’re just finishing off our old stock which was bought more expensive.”

By: Capri_XR2

Capri_XR2 — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 10:32:31 +0000

Im pretty sure that 4 years ago our dollar was about 72c and the barrel price was $75 -$85/ barrel and the litre price was 98c
I would like to see the stats on a chart to see if we a being ripped off and by how much