What hope have we got of lowering fuel prices? filled up this morning at $1.41, used a 4c voucher so paid $1.37, still a blatant ripoff. Drove away from servo past the servo 100 metres down the road where fuel is $1.54 and no voucher discount and there was 5 cars there filling up. The $1.41 sign is plain to see form this servo, I just don't get it. I am not saying the fuel companies are going to change their ways through our little protests, but why would you pay an extra 13c a litre if you don't need to!!!!
Maybe they use a fuel card provided to them and they don't pay for the fuel themselves?
Fuel companies are making tons of money and everyone is wondering why fuel is so expensive. Its something the ACCC and the powers that be just can't work out. They probably don't want to work it out coz they are making billions out of it themselves. Even LPG is expensive which is strange as its flogged off for next to nothing to the Chinese, Koreans and whoever else wants it.
Well the last big fuel rises a few years back were caused by the Aussie dollar being weak.
Now it is caused by the Aussie dollar being strong.
That's what the fuel companies have said anyway 
I can't understand why LPG has become so expensive all of a sudden - the wife was telling me it jumped by 20 cents or so from when I was last home (only ben away 13 days). It is now more economical for us to run her car on petrol instead of gas, park the ute up as its dedicated gas and use the 4b instead as its diesel. What a scam, I won't go in to all the details but export pays less than a few cents a litre - the companies I've worked for that run their mines on gas turbines pay about the same or a little less. As usual the consumer has to pay for the price gouging through the fuel stations. BP is always more expensive than elsewhere but we always get issued BP fuel cards.
LNG and domestic gas is not the same as LPG.
LNG and domestic gas is methane. Cheap and abundant. Difficult to store and transport and that's why it is sold cheaply.
LPG is propane/butane. Higher energy density, easy to store and transport and therefore has a higher demand and lower availability hence why it costs more.
Fuel will always be expensive because people want it so much. We really take it for granted, that one little litre of this magic liquid can transport us and our 2 tonnes of steel for over 10km. Try pushing your car that far (and at 100kph) and you might start to appreciate how much energy each human being uses in a typical day on this planet without any thought to how lucky we are to have it.
Why would our present day Government of either side of the house want the price to come down to a realistic level. The Government is addicted to the tax it drags from this commodity, more we pay, the more the Government rips out of our pocket.
I don't get how
1lt Diesel = $1.50
1lt Water = $3.20 - the cheaper brand
0.6lt Coke = $3.80
0.7lt JD = $42.00
Work that one out.
We are addicted to oil - it has a relatively inelastic demand.
Current fuel price increases are being driven by increased prices being paid to build up storage due to concerns over Israel/Iran. Classic supply and demand in a free market world.
Supply however is presently regulated by large oil producing countries in the gulf. Supply costs there are cheap, but it is a finite resource, so that are making the money while they can (perhaps there is a lesson there for Australia) - not fair, but that is the way it is.
In other countries, supply costs are much more expensive, and risk is high. Margins are tighter.
So the story is get used to increasing fuel prices - it will get worse. You can argue on the government card, but this does not cut - goverment taxes, that is the way it is.
Oil in it forms (diesel, petrol,LPG) is getting harder to get (peak oil?), demand is going up, the crunch is coming. This resource will run out, and there will be interesting times
The problem for all developed counties is that pretty much all of our production (food, minerals, water) is tied to this cheap fuel - if it goes up then all costs go up.
According to some geologists crude oil is the the result of underground bacterial activity and its being created all the time in huge quantities. I think primarily some Russian geologists follow this theory. A lot of new oil deposits are being found in Russia.
From what I've read the whole oil prospecting industry is so secretive that very few people have any idea of how much crude oil is around. Those in the know laugh when oil prices go up.
Existing technology is out there to greatly improve fuel economy at little cost. Low powered diesel engines use little fuel. Some of the most economical cars were made in the 1970s like the Mk1 diesel VW Golf from that decade. These sorts of cars without all the mod cons would be cheap to make and cheap to run.
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^^^ you miss the point Ian. A town of 100 - 500 ppl, about 150km from a capital city has a little deli that you can't do your shopping in so you drive - or pay Woolies online prices - both affected by fuel price. But you say the answer is just "don't live there then" - hardly an option. They are not "regional centres" but still have Govt workers and people living there to provide services.
You made it sound as if only farmers should live there, and as if only regional centres have people who don't farm!
I am in the first town out of Perth, barely past the sight of the CBD, and it costs $50 to drive down and back.
Fuel prices surely must be hurting the econom when the big companies just raise it as they see fit. It is bloody criminal when they claimed hi prices due to Aussie dollar, and when we strengthened from $1.30 to even with the USD the prices didn't drop. Wankers.
If what you say is true its not just people living in the country living on borrowed time. Many Australians need cars to get anywhere as they live in suburbs that have no public transport.
The answer is not to limit people's mobility. People won't accept that. I won't accept that. I live about 300 meters away from a major Sydney suburban train station. My work is a ten minute walk from where I live. So I personally could survive if fuel went up to $5 or $50 a litre. However I enjoy getting out on the weekend to go windsurfing and I have to drive to do so. I like to go for a drive somewhere if I want to. Why shouldn't I? Its still a semi-free country and having a car is a big part of that sense of freedom.
What will happen if fuel continues to up in price is alternatives way of getting around will spring up. Some alternatives seem to be quite expensive and don't really make much sense, like the electric car from GM, the Volt, or hydrogen fueled cars. An alternative which I believe does have legs are cheap low powered diesel vehicles. They could easily get milage of under 4 litres per 100 kms which is better milage than the best hybrid vehicles. Diesel motors can be modified to run on vegetable oil. This is a low tech and cheap way for people to get around even if big oil and big government decides petrol should be $10 or $100 a litre.
Payed $1.70 for 98 the other day, and I drive a V8 ^_^ **** happens, it's not going to get radically cheaper in my lifetime, more important things in life to worry about....like why it's not windy more often 
We grizzle about $1.50 for a litre of petrol but happily pay +$2 for a bottle of filtered bore water spring water
+1 !!!!!
