Sydney motorists are paying up to 25 cents more for a litre of petrol now than they were before the start of the US-Israel war on Iran, as motoring groups accuse retailers of using the conflict as an excuse to gouge their customers.
After Jim Chalmers instructed the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to keep an eye out for profiteering behaviour, a spokesperson for the watchdog said it had “observed average retail regular unleaded petrol prices in several cities moving higher over the last few days”.
Motoring groups NRMA and RACQ have already accused retailers of price gouging, amid reports of long queues at some service stations as motorists rush to fill up before the surge in global crude oil prices feeds through to the bowser.
It comes as Australians face the prospect of another interest rate hike, with Reserve Bank governor Michelle bullock warning there was a “live” chance of an increase this month as the global oil price spike adds to already high inflation.
The roughly 15% jump in global oil prices since the start of the US-Israeli missile strikes should take seven to 10 days to begin to be reflected in the cost of fuel at Australian service stations, according to industry estimates.
Changes in international benchmark fuel prices, such as Singapore unleaded petrol and diesel prices, can take around two weeks to work their way through service stations in the major cities, and longer in the regions, according to the Australian Institute of Petroleum.
Yet average petrol prices in Australian city suburbs jumped almost immediately, including an 8.4c rise in average Brisbane prices since Friday, and a 7.5c average increase in Melbourne, according to Guardian Australia’s analysis of data from petrol tracking website Motormouth.
Peter Khoury, an NRMA spokesperson, said the petrol price rises in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane were striking because they happened at a time when they should have been lower on a regular cycle.
“It’s not normal – what’s happened in the Middle East has affected prices almost immediately,” Khoury said.
“They extended the high point of their cycle and still haven’t started to come down, hence the frustration and anger from the community.
“And when you have 50% of service stations charging $2.19 or more [per litre of unleaded], then there is something wrong with prices in those cities.”
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Khoury urged the ACCC to name and shame any retailers it found were profiteering, in the wake of Chalmers sending a letter to the regulator telling it to investigate any evidence of price gouging.
An ACCC spokesperson said that fuel prices were “determined by the market”.
“However, any petrol retailer that makes false or misleading statements to consumers about the reasons their prices have increased would be in breach of the Australian consumer law,” they said.
“Since mid-February average wholesale petrol prices across the five largest cities have increased by around 8 cents per litre.”
Belinda Allen, head of Australian economics at the Commonwealth Bank, said the jump in international oil prices, if sustained, would add 0.1 percentage points to inflation per quarter.
That may be a “marginal” impact, but “this time around inflation is already too high,” Allen said.
