Third-time unlucky? In his 13th article, TERRY McGEE casts another hairy eye over shire fuel prices – and does not like the view.ONCE is an event; twice might be a coincidence, but three times can indicate a trend.
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Batemans Bay fuel prices have been above expectations for three weeks in a row, as the plateau at the right-hand end of the red trace in the graph, at left, confirms.
Yet the Terminal Gate Price has peaked and is on the way down, as the dashed brown line shows. So, yep, it’s official, we’re being gouged.
However, Moruya prices are pretty much on expectation.
Come on Moruya, fess up - what’s your secret? Up here in the Bay, we’d like what you’re having.
We’re not yet being gouged like in the bad old days, before 21 December last year, as shown on the left of the graph, but it’s not insignificant.
Over the past three weeks, we’ve been paying an average of 5 cents per litre higher than expectations. If we assume an average usage rate of 40 litres per week, that’s $2 each per week. That’s $104 a year.
Who do you think needs that $104 more; you or the international fuel companies?
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, we have about 15,000 cars in Batemans Bay and surrounds.
At the current rate, our town is losing about 1.5 million dollars a year in gouging.
So what are we going to do about it? I think that’s a discussion you need to have with your friends.