FuelWatch faces fatal blow

FuelWatch faces fatal blow by independent : "But he said this would still only be window dressing. What was needed was improved competition at the wholesale level, giving independent operators a better chance of breaking into the wholesale fuel market."

I think much of this ought to be routine and taking up a lot less time and energy. Oil prices are not set by us. No one in Australia sets the oil prices and wouldn't it be lovely if we did? We need to look at this on several fronts and I guess we are but in a rather peculiar fashion. We need to know what is influencing oil prices because it seems very odd how they are fixed and fluctuate. it can be tied to bizarre circumstances. We need a better understanding of who calls the shots and how. It is a resource which is limited and there were predictions it would soar as people who owned oil tried to make money out of it before we sensibly changed to something which was more reliable and cost effective....and less last millennium. Then we need to know who is charging what and where the best prices might be in our area because that is important for some people. They need to know where to buy petrol at the best price. Out of that we ought to be able to see how it fluctuates in price around various areas of Australia and that information can be used to modify prices in some way shape or form. Then we need to be looking at the viable alternatives and that might include using alternative transport and putting pressure on to get more and better forms of public transport.FuelWatch is only a part of that. the petrol prices need to be fought on several fronts and no one thing is going to drop the prices but a concerted effort in the areas we need will affect how we behave with regard to petrol consumption.I don't think the government has any power over oil pricing but it does have power over information delivery which will help us manage what is now a worrying problem for a car dependant country.