And when he did, I smiled. Not because I have any love for Brendan Nelson; in fact, I have only sympathy. Not because I support his policy to cut the cost of petrol; it's ridiculous. No, because although I voted for Big Kev with all the optimism in the world, I can't stand his Government By Committee. It's Inquiry This, and Working Party That; Commission This and Study That. Ridiculous! The man has been setting the impression that he will endeavour to tackle every issue, and it's now time to pay up and all he can find is loose change.
The excruciating fact is that he's trying to sell the following line to the Australian people: my government will get involved in all aspects of your life, and Do Something. Now I'm no opponent of government action, but two things I can't stand are government action for the sake of it, and the misleading appearance of government action for the sake of it. To wit, we have an atrocious "FuelWatch" idea, whereby all petrol vendors must register their prices on a website, and maintain that price for the next 24 hours. If I were a petrol vendor, I would be telling Mr Rudd to mind his own Bucking Fusiness. Unless petrol stations are significantly subsidised by federal funds, which I doubt, what right does the government have to tell them when they can and can't adjust their prices? Inform the consumer what the price is, sure, but regulate price movements to that extent? No way.
Government action for the sake of it is bad because of two perfectly good cliches: the law of unintended consequences (e.g. stabilising the fuel price thereby robbing consumers of occasional savings caused by competition); and the road to hell being paved with good intentions (e.g. meddling in people's business for the supposed but illusory good of consumers).
Why should I get upset on behalf of petrol vendors? Firstly, I know that they exist on slim margins. There's not much retail profit in petrol; they basically rely on people buying chocolates etc. to stay afloat. So I support the little guy against the do-gooder but really do-nothing government. And secondly, if the government can get away with this today, then maybe tomorrow they'll be interfering in my job and eroding freedom from my life.
Krudd and co promised a government based on sound policy that looked beyond the short term. Getting locked into a demeaning battle on petrol prices is the antithesis of that. Krudd needs to take some advice from Mr. T: stop yo' jibber-jabber and get some nuts! Say to the Australian people:
I understand the pressure that rising fuel prices puts on your personal and family budgets. However, there is nothing I can do to bring petrol prices down. The international price of oil is rising and will probably continue to do so because of its scarcity. As individuals and as a society we are going to need to adjust to that, and I will not be drawn into petty arguments. The solutions I have offered are to monitor fuel prices so you can shop around more easily, and to cut taxes so you have more money in your pocket. Thank you and goodnight.
2 comments:
Mid Ram,
You are one of many incensed by the FuelWatch scheme but I find it difficult to understand why. The petroleum market has a particular problem in that (correctly) nobody perceives any supplier's product to be any better than any other's. It is not like Holden, Ford and Toyota competing to sell locally produced 6 cylinder cars.
Even so there is no other retail market where the price changes hour by hour, much less day by day. The closest I can think of is alcohol retailers, where prices for a slab may change from one week to another.
The main objective of FuelWatch, as I understood it and perhaps everyone including the government has forgotten, is to obviate the immense irritation of filling up your car on the way to work and seeing fuel prices 10 cents lower on the way home.
Fair enough, Anonymous, but I wonder whether the constant change in fuel prices is really a big deal. Sure, it may be irritating at times, but it must average itself out. And as many have pointed out, if the effect is to flatten out the prices, that means canny consumers (unlike me) are unlikely to gain access to any bargains.
These matters don't seem worthy enough to me to warrant heavy-handed legislation. And you're right: no supplier's product is different to any other, so all they can compete on is price. I think it's quite unfair that retailers -- smaller ones in particular -- can't adjust their prices to take part in that competition. If prices are to be set and locked in for 24 hours, I think the big players may find that quite convenient.
A solution just occurred to me. Perhaps the government should open its own chain of petrol stations with a charter to charge no more for it than necessary. A no-frills service (card payments only so no cash is handled, for instance). Then see how the competition reacts.
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