Petrol prices are still at record highs in Townsville this week. Photo: FILE

Aussie plan ‘fuel strike’ as prices soar

A PLANNED two-day boycott of service stations to protest record high fuel prices will be "not even a rounding error" to the industry, the NRMA says.

Around 85,000 people have said on Facebook they will take part in a "national fuel strike" starting on Friday, with another 77,000 indicating they are interested. Group organiser Sabrina Lamont has also started an online petition urging the federal government to cut fuel taxes.



"They are breaking the country's back with this. We are asking the whole nation not to enter a service station, a total boycott, whether independents or a major brand. Just do not buy fuel."


"I think what's happened is someone's done the sums around the oil price, the exchange rate and added the tax," he said. "The problem is we don't put oil in our cars, we put petrol. They've missed the refinery costs, we've also got to ship it (from Singapore), transport it to the site and retail it."





"In cities like Canberra, Darwin and Hobart there's never a cycle, it's just always expensive, so at some point people need to fill up," he said.

Mr Khoury said even if all 160,000 people chose not to fill up, "that's not even a rounding error in terms of the overall size of the industry". "We completely understand the public's frustration," he said.

"These are record high prices, in some of these areas we haven't seen prices like this in 10 years. We get how difficult and frustrating it is, we are also acutely aware of the impact it's having on the economy because our economy runs on fuel."


"We know oil prices have fallen so we should see some relief, 7-8 cents per litre in coming weeks, but it's such a volatile sector and things can change overnight," he said.

"We just don't know what's going to happen to world oil prices. The fact that the Saudis killed a journalist in their embassy in Turkey, the world's going to respond, what does that do to petrol prices?"

He said oil comes from "some of the most volatile parts of the world".

"We have zero control," he said. "Tensions between Russia, Iran and the US cause prices to increase. Saudi Arabia is the world's largest producer of oil, they're at war with their neighbour, now we've got this new incident."





"The most important thing is data is king here," he said.

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