Federal MP Meryl Swanson has taken the Hunter’s fight for cheaper petrol prices to parliament.
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The Member for Paterson used a speech in the House of Representatives this week to highlight issues of petrol prices as well as broadband speed, in response to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s annual report.
Ms Swanson pointed to a 20c/l difference in unleaded petrol prices between the close Hunter towns of Rutherford and Kurri Kurri on Tuesday as examples of the problem that the region’s motorists faced.
“Chairman Rod Sims told the committee that the ACCC’s regional study on petrol prices in Darwin and Launceston had revealed higher than normal profits at the retail level, but this transparency and exposure had had a big effect on bringing fuel prices down,” she told Parliament.
“He noted that two further studies on petrol prices are underway at the ACCC and, at the conclusion of these, there might be more transparency and exposure on the issue.
“I, and my constituents, very much look forward to that and do not look forward to a 20c difference in petrol prices in less than 20km.”
At noon on Thursday, the cost of e10 unleaded petrol ranged between 116.9c/l and 123.9c/l in the Maitland/Rutherford area.
The range in Cessnock was 115.9c/l to 128.9c/l, while the spread in Newcastle was 121.7c/l to 129/9c/l.
Nick Bielby
Nick Bielby is a crime reporter who has worked as a journalist since 2011. Having joined the Newcastle Herald in 2017, he won a Walkley Award in 2019 with Donna Page for their investigation 'Dirty Deeds', which exposed the decades of illegal dumping of toxic material in and around a Hunter waterway.
Nick Bielby is a crime reporter who has worked as a journalist since 2011. Having joined the Newcastle Herald in 2017, he won a Walkley Award in 2019 with Donna Page for their investigation 'Dirty Deeds', which exposed the decades of illegal dumping of toxic material in and around a Hunter waterway.
