Mike Fitzgerald
Veteran Member
Not wanting to upstage you, Peggy, but in Australia it's currently hitting $1.08 per litre, i.e. AU$4.09 per US gallon (and our average wage levels are pretty well commensurate with yours in numerical $ terms). Bad as it is, the current pricing doesn't really bug people so much as the regular situation, where it's been floating between about 83¢ and 99¢ per litre for the past few years ($3.14 and $3.75 in your terms).
Week after week, almost like clockwork, it hikes on Thursday afternoons by typically 10¢ and as much as 14¢ per litre, just in time for the homeward commuters with their fresh pay packets, and then recedes during the following week. And it's even worse approaching a holiday weekend. The whole thing is a ridiculous charade in the name of international parity pricing, especially as it similarly affects the pump price of LPG which we produce locally. The government is refusing to jump on it because of the cut it gets: both fuel excise and sales tax are applied, and both are calculated as percentages. It has been creaming off this situation all along, refusing to peg taxes by way of relief and not even paying lip service to the obvious collusion that's going on between producers. We have a watchdog body called the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which has all the teeth it needs to do something about the wide price swings (their timing in particular), but it remains strangely silent on this issue :-(
Mike
Melbourne, Oz
Week after week, almost like clockwork, it hikes on Thursday afternoons by typically 10¢ and as much as 14¢ per litre, just in time for the homeward commuters with their fresh pay packets, and then recedes during the following week. And it's even worse approaching a holiday weekend. The whole thing is a ridiculous charade in the name of international parity pricing, especially as it similarly affects the pump price of LPG which we produce locally. The government is refusing to jump on it because of the cut it gets: both fuel excise and sales tax are applied, and both are calculated as percentages. It has been creaming off this situation all along, refusing to peg taxes by way of relief and not even paying lip service to the obvious collusion that's going on between producers. We have a watchdog body called the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which has all the teeth it needs to do something about the wide price swings (their timing in particular), but it remains strangely silent on this issue :-(
Mike
Melbourne, Oz
just sharing a sign of the times...
--
peggy... also known as miaowcat!
-- Sony Mavica CD1000, CD400 (and former DSC S85)
http://www.pbase.com/puck
