MELBOURNE: Australian motorists are being advised to boycott "price-gouging” petrol retailers as fuel prices surge across major cities ahead of the Christmas holidays.
Unleaded petrol in Australia reached A$1.71 a litre (RM4.87) Thursday in Brisbane, a record for the Queensland state capital, and A$1.73 (RM4.92) a litre Friday on the Gold Coast, according to the Royal automobile Club of Queensland, known as RACQ. In Melbourne, prices topped A$1.75 (RM4.98) a litre Saturday, a 2019 high, Victoria state’s car club said.
Wholesale fuel prices have increased because of rising oil charges and the higher cost of refined petroleum products from Singapore, said Lauren Ritchie, an RACQ spokesman, in a phone interview Sunday.
Some Brisbane petrol stations added as much as 34 Australian cents (97 sen) a litre to retail prices last week and should be "boycotted,” she said.
"Any retailer charging over A$1.71 in Brisbane would be taking hefty retail margins,” Ritchie said. "That wouldn’t be fair, it would be price-gouging. Do not fill up there.”
Following lobbying by the motoring group, the Queensland government instigated a requirement a year ago for all petrol stations to publicly release fuel prices to create greater transparency for drivers. The programme has led to a 2.3-cents-a-litre reduction (6.5 sen) in petrol prices in Brisbane, and has saved the state’s motorists A$122.8 million (RM340mil), RACQ estimates.
