Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Petrol prices in Darwin are too high. As the NT News put it with admirable directness, as they are wont to do, Darwin motorists are being ripped off at the bowser. Today in Darwin the price of 91 octane unleaded is $149.9 a litre, a shade under $1.50 a litre. In Sydney, however, the price today is $124.5. I was in Melbourne two weeks ago and I saw fuel for $1.21. Madam Deputy Speaker Claydon, how can this be, I hear you ask—or you must be thinking? It's pretty clear that it's an abuse of market power by those fuel companies and unconscionable price gouging at the petrol pump. Darwin's just a small market with limited competition, so Darwin motorists have to pay what the fuel companies demand.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the ACCC, reports that around Australia petrol retailers' margins are the highest they have ever been and motorists are paying for it. In Darwin, retail petrol prices increased significantly between October and December 2017 and by much more than the increase in wholesale prices. I support the ACCC's suggestions and I suggest that Darwin motorists support our 'Let's do the right thing.'