The average cost of unleaded petrol across the major Australian cities has reached its highest price ever — while Perth was the cheapest city in the country to fill up on Anzac Day.
A nationwide comparison compiled by consumer price testing website Compare the Market, calculated that on Thursday the average price of a litre of unleaded 91 fuel across the five major metro sites soared to 217.92 cents per litre.
That overtook the previous high of 217 cents per litre, set last September. And on Friday that average remained at 217.4 cents per litre.
The nation’s most expensive fuel was to be found in Brisbane, at $2.30 per litre. And the low point was in Perth — at an average of $1.94 cents per litre.
That average was 21 cents cheaper than Wednesday’s weekly peak of $2.15 cents per litre.
Chris Ford from Compare the Market noted that the national average at the beginning of the year was $1.82 per litre — meaning the average price had jumped around 20 per cent since then.
“Motorists may see these high prices at fuel stations across the nation and blame the retailers, but there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes,” Mr Ford said.
“Firstly, some wholesale prices have jumped from an average of $1.65 a litre at the start of the year to $1.88 a litre now — a 13.9 per cent hike, according to our analysis. The higher the wholesale price, the more retailers fork out for fuel and the more likely that these costs are passed onto motorists.”
Mr Ford said global influences were also pushing up the prices at Australian bowsers.
“We also know that when the Australian dollar loses ground on the US dollar, it can impact prices at the pump,” he said. “Oil prices are also climbing due to conflict in the Middle East. Oil prices aren’t far behind the highs we saw last September, which could be why we’re now seeing those national average retail-price records being smashed.”
The mysterious fuel price cycles — which see Perth prices leap by as much as 33 cents per litre overnight — are also impacting across the country.
“We’ve been seeing the average price for Unleaded 91 across our major capitals fluctuate in their regular pricing cycles,” Mr Ford said.
“On Wednesday, the city-wide average in Adelaide was just under $1.92 a litre, but soared to $2.10 by Thursday and up to $2.25 again on Friday.
“We also know that Brisbane and Melbourne are nearing the peak of their latest pricing cycles, while Sydney has already passed its peak and prices are starting to fall.
“However, as we’ve seen more recently, it’s taking longer for prices to drop in these locations and they’re not always falling as much as they did in the past.”
As of February this year, 49.6 cents per every litre sold in Australia goes to the Federal Government in fuel excise. That is more than double the rate it was when former PM Scott Morrison cut it to around 22 cents per litre in March 2022.
Late last year, mining magnate Gina Rinehart argued that another cut should have been pushed through to ease the cost of living pressures.
“Most people forget that the government taxes every tank of fuel we use at around 50 cents per litre (including GST), so when politicians say there’s not much they can do about it — the truth is, there is,” Mrs Rinehart told The West Australian.
“Too many aspects of what Australia does is over-regulated, over-taxed, and impeded. It just pushes prices up and they get passed along always to the consumer.”