THE ACCC will be given the power to permanently monitor fuel prices after an inquiry failed to come up with proof of price fixing in the petrol industry.
An ACCC report into the industry, ordered by former treasurer Peter Costello and released
yesterday, found there was no obvious evidence of collusion or price fixing.
But it also found the fact that Shell, Caltex, BP and Mobil controlled 98 per cent of the market meant the petrol industry was "very concentrated".
"Our inquiry found that, overall, the petrol market in Australia is competitive; however, we did find some structural factors that operate to constrain a fully competitive market at all levels of the supply chain," ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said.
Assistant Treasurer Chris Bowen responded to the report by ordering the ACCC to conduct ongoing monitoring of the prices, costs and profits of petroleum companies for the next three years.
Mr Bowen said the Government would consider the nationwide adoption of a West Australian scheme that used a website and telephone hotline to tell motorist where petrol was cheapest.
The Government has promised to appoint a dedicated petrol commissioner position within the ACCC to monitor fuel prices.
And it will introduce laws that enable the jailing of executives found guilty of engaging in cartel-type behaviour.
Mr Samuel said the ACCC intended to closely monitor the impact that supermarket shopper docket schemes had on competition.
Australian Automobile Association executive director Mike Harris backed the Government's decision to order ongoing monitoring.
"I'm very heartened by the fact that the Government has given the commission power to investigate not only prices and costs but profits as well," Mr Harris said.
Nationals leader Warren Truss said Labor's criticism of retail petrol costs before the election meant it had a responsibility to bring prices down.
"If it was prepared to criticise the last government, then the Government's challenge now is to explain exactly how its own actions will put downward pressure on petrol prices and keep them lower into the future," Mr Truss said.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development studies showed Australia had the fourth-cheapest petrol prices in the world, the ACCC said.
BP Australia Retail vice-president Dean Salter said there was a high degree of transparency in the industry.
He said his company's analysis of the WA scheme, which had been operating since 1983, showed it had not forced prices down.
"We have certainly analysed the impact it has had on the market over there and its effect on the retail pricing decisions that we make," he said.
"It certainly hasn't changed, in our opinion, retail prices."
Peter Jean, Herald Sun December 19, 2007
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