Your $ and the Petrol Pump

Dear Reader,

It is hard to believe that the price per litre of petrol at your local service station increasing by 20 cents or 25 cents depends on the area or the mood of the operator.  This is precisely what takes place in most, if not all, service stations in Australia’s major cities and the surrounding metropolis each week.  This is so regardless whether the world oil price fall or rise on the international market. 'How could this be?' one asks. when there are watchful Federal, State and Territory governments and specialized statutory bodies such as the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) that employs some 813 people with annual budget of $202 million with the armory, penalties and prohibition of the Trade Practices Act?

Let me tell you dear reader what happened to me two weeks ago.  My car takes 68 litres to fill up the tank.  I normally leave home at 6 am and come back around 7:30 or 8 pm.  On Tuesday night the Caltex service station that I normally fill my car was full.  I thought to fill up the following day.  To my astonishment, within less than 24 hours, the price per liter jumped from $1.42 to $1.64!  The 50 litres it took to fill the tank cost me $82 instead of the $71 that it would have cost me 24 hours, and in some cases, a few hours earlier!  My question is: who pocketed the $11?  I am sure that is a question on the mind of every Australian motorist.  If one is on a budget, as most families are, $11 is a significant amount of money.  I felt robbed in broad daylight, but at the time I filled up the light was getting dim. Nevertheless to my mind what is taking place at the service stations amounts to sanctified robbery or robbery with honor.  A robber generally does not distribute the spoils, or loots. If that generality is sound then the spoils goes to the parent company which is a member or perhaps  part of a cartel.

Undoubtedly there had been similar questions asked by irate motorists in the past and convincing explanation and justification given by those in the know on behalf of the cartel.  The fact that the practice still continues on weekly basis and gradually becoming entrenched in the mind of Australian motorists would suggest to me that Australian governments of all persuasion had either being silenced by accepting the explanation given to them by those in the know and regulators, such as the ACCC, told to keep their focus on more susceptible prey. I wonder if motorist in the USA, Europe or the Middle East will keep their silence if they had to pay $11 extra to fill their vehicle tank or the governments in those countries feel they cannot do anything to address the question. Is this daylight robbery in this day and age possible one asks? 

If in fact this practice by the petroleum cartel does not fall under the umbrella of the Trade Practices Act. What is stopping a specifically worded amendment to the Act to ensure it does?  Is anyone there bold enough to make that amendment?  If you wish me to draft such an amendment to the Act I will be honored to do so.