Call for Petrol Commissioner to be sacked

Jessica Marszalek
February 13, 2012

Herald Sun

AUSTRALIA’S Petrol Commissioner should be sacked and his office disbanded following claims motorists are being ripped off with supermarket discount vouchers, an Independent Senator says.

The Australian Automobile Association (AAA) examined fuel prices before and during the Woolworths and Coles 8-cents-a-litre discount over summer.

It found the average margin on fuel increased by at least two cents during the offer.

That meant motorists using the dockets were actually getting no benefit, and those without dockets were being ripped off.
Independent Nick Xenophon said the fact the scandal had been uncovered by motoring bodies, not the official paid to do so, should be the Petrol Commissioner’s death knell.

“The Petrol Commissioner’s office has proven to be, in the past four years, a waste of time, a waste of money and a waste of space,” he said.

“The $330,000 a year the Petrol Commissioner Joe Dimasi earns and the $1 million it costs to run his office could be much better spent on peak motoring bodies doing the monitoring.”

He said Australian Competition and Consumer Commission should investigate the AAA’s findings and prosecute Coles and Woolworths, if necessary.

The office was set up in 2007 to promote competition and transparency in Australia’s petrol market.