The Government welcomes the first release of data by the independent price monitoring system of petrol prices for 100 country towns and capital cities across the nation. The Government appreciates the efforts of the Australian Institute of Petroleum, BP, Caltex, Mobil and Shell as well as the Australian Automobile Association and its constituent members, the NRMA, RACV, RACQ, RACWA, RAA, RACT and AANT in putting together this price data.
The petrol price data proves the success of the first stage of the Government reform package for the petroleum industry. Overall, petrol prices have fallen in cities as well as in country towns since the implementation of the Governments reform package on 1 August this year.
The Government proposes to implement the remaining stages of its policy in order to lock in the benefits of lower petrol prices for rural and regional consumers.
The Governments reform package is based on the recommendations of the 1994 Industry Commission report on petroleum products and the 1996 inquiry report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission into the Petroleum Products Declaration. (Both these inquiries were commissioned by the former Labor Government.)