Now Rudd Pays the Price! (2 Viewers)

Captain Gh3y

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http://www.theage.com.au/national/c...nd-petrol-hits-170-20080607-2n9n.html?page=-1

Clouds loom as oil price soars and petrol hits $1.70

MOTORISTS face petrol prices of up to $1.70 a litre within days and could be paying more than $1.80 a litre by next month after fresh tensions in the Middle East pushed the oil price to a record high.

The bad news came as the Federal Government delivered its strongest hint yet that a new emissions trading scheme — set to begin in 2010 — would include transport.

That could mean even higher costs for motorists, who would be forced to cover the price of carbon embedded in the petrol they use.

Concerns about volatility in the Middle East and a weaker US dollar helped lift the global barrel price of oil by $US11 to a record $US139 ($A145), one of the biggest jumps ever. Investment house Morgan Stanley is now predicting oil will hit $US150 a barrel by July.

Oil prices have doubled in the past 12 months, and are up 42% since the beginning of the year, leading to warnings that the cost of petrol will hurt the economy, dampening consumer demand and pushing up business costs.

Macquarie Bank interest rate strategist Rory Robertson said the price surge was likely to have serious ramifications for the world economy, "sucking the life out of discretionary spending".

"If the oil price is sustained at anything like the current level, the damage to global growth — across both the developed and the developing world — will be substantial," he said.

The only good news is that weakening global growth and slowing spending and borrowing in Australia could convince the Reserve Bank to leave interest rates on hold until year's end.

"I doubt that the Reserve Bank will feel the need to tighten again this year, given the ongoing slowdown in local demand, and the fact that the whole of the OECD, led by the US economy, continues to weaken under the weight of … the extraordinary surge in fuel prices," Mr Robertson said.

One reason for the steep rise in oil prices is the fear of a supply shortage in the wake of Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz's reported threat to attack Iran if Tehran does not abandon its nuclear program.

Another reason is China's demand for extra diesel to stockpile before the Beijing Olympics, and to replace coal-fired electricity lost due to the Sichuan province earthquake.

Meanwhile, Nigerian workers are also threatening to go on strike at Chevron operations in the oil-rich West African nation.

The oil price rises have bitten deeply in the US, where the world's largest economy suffered its biggest jump in unemployment for 22 years, intensifying fears of a looming recession.

Australian Automobile Association director of research and policy John Metcalfe said the latest oil price surge could push Australian pump prices up by as much as much as 14 cents a litre.

If predictions of prices of $US150 by July are correct, that suggests local bowser costs could rise to about $1.70 a litre within the next seven to 10 days, and above $1.80 a litre by July.

"When the next high point in the cycle is reached, you would expect at least another 10 to 15 cents a litre," he said.

Petrol costs, averaging about $1.57 cents a litre in Melbourne yesterday, are a hot political issue after huge price surges, questions surrounding the Government's FuelWatch scheme, and a plan by the Opposition to cut excise by five cents a litre.

In London for talks with political and business leaders, Treasurer Wayne Swan warned the coverage of an emissions trading scheme should be "as broad as possible," hitting out at his Opposition rival, Malcolm Turnbull, for suggesting fuel should be excluded.

"We will be publishing a green paper next month which will open the discussion about this question," Mr Swan said.

In a proposal that could render squabbling over fuel tax reductions irrelevant, The Sunday Age believes the petrol excise regime could be dumped and replaced with a new system of charges based on environmental, social and economic damage inflicted by different vehicles and road use.

The plan, which has strong backing from motoring groups that will argue the case in Canberra in coming weeks, will be considered as part of the Government's much-anticipated tax review, headed by Treasury secretary Ken Henry.

RACV director of public policy Brian Negus said his organisation would press the Government "as a matter of urgency" to review the regime and consider a comprehensive road user charge based on environmental, infrastructure and safety costs associated with road use. Access Economics director Chris Richardson backed the plan.
 

Captain Gh3y

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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23801059-5013947,00.html

Rudd pays personal toll for anger about petrol prices

KEVIN Rudd has personally borne the brunt of public anger over rising petrol prices, slumping to his lowest approval since becoming Prime Minister on the widespread belief he has broken an election promise.

Tapping into discontent over petrol prices since last month's budget, Brendan Nelson is in his best position against Mr Rudd as preferred prime minister, although the Liberal leader and the Coalition still trail badly.

According to the latest Newspoll survey, taken last weekend exclusively for The Australian, Mr Rudd's standing as preferred prime minister dropped from 70 to 66 per cent - his lowest rating since he was elected. The Opposition Leader's support rose from 12 to his highest rating of 17 per cent.

On primary votes, support for the Coalition was unchanged on 37 per cent, while Labor was at its lowest since the November election at 46 per cent, compared with 47 per cent two weeks ago.

On a two-party preferred basis, based on preference flows at the last election, support for the major parties was unchanged at 43 per cent for the Coalition and 57 per cent for Labor.

But in the past two weeks, voter satisfaction with Mr Rudd hit a new low for him of 56 per cent - a seven-point drop in the fortnight - as dissatisfaction hit a new high of 30 per cent.

Mr Rudd's credibility on petrol prices and his vow to keep all his election promises was set back after most people decided he had promised during the election campaign last year to keep petrol prices lower...
 

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And the best part,

Comments from the Aussie bleeders on news.com.au

it's a long wekend, time to screw the motorists AGAIN !!!!!!!
Posted by: brent smith of sydney 2:57pm today

And with oil prices on the way DOWN.........................greedy? Oil companies? Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Posted by: Dave C of Blue Mountains 3:12pm today

I have not had a pay rise in 18 months ( not even CPI) and even if i did get one it would not cover the amount that every day things are going up by including petrol. This country is turning into the USA with it's greedy white collar pigs who's first words at the mention of a petrol increase would be stuff them i get my bonus at the end of the year. I have friends in Canada that are buying petrol for $1.20 a litre and our currencies are about the same. try to justify such an increase just before a long weekend ( as always ) As for public trans. you pay about $36 a week miranda return from the city, You try doing that in your car for the same amount.
Posted by: MICK 3:25pm today

When they can make a local hybrid car that can do 0 to 100km/h in less than 5 seconds, with a range of at least 500 to 600km between refueling, I will be interested. In the meantime, I am happy to pay up to $3 per litre to enjoy driving a performance vehicle. So will many people fortunate enough to afford one.
Posted by: Mark of Northside 3:32pm today

Price of Oil per barrell goes down...and Sydney fuel prices go up. Go figure. Oh, thats right, its a long weekend. Price gouging if I have ever seen it.
Posted by: David of Sydney 3:43pm today

S of Coast. Don't worry about delays or comfort on public transport, what kind of bubble do you live in. Yes, travelling by public trans. is cheaper but delays are often and comfort is zero, Driving a car home when your buggered after the day is not comfort and delays on these roads are far to often. You must be one of those bike riders that cause so much traffic.
Posted by: mick 4:05pm today

So how is Kevvys stomach virus? Guess it is more important than the pain to the working classes wallet. COme on Kevvy, toughen up and get to work on this.
Posted by: What the of Werro 4:09pm today

What about the fact that oil has been coming down in price lately? It may not be much but it has come down a bit. What about the fact that our dollar is high? As for the ACCC - a bunch of posers they are! Nothing beneficial ever comes from the ACCC. The ACCC is nothing but an absolute drain on the public purse.
Posted by: Lyn of Artarmon 4:15pm today

When the hell will everyone realise that the current oil price is driven by speculation & has nothing to do with demand!The whole $3 a litre thing is utter rubbish & won`t happen - we would plummet into a hell of a recession not seen for years if it did.When the US property market recovers & speculaters put their cash back into property the oil price will fall well below $100-simple as that.Developing nations subsidise their fuel-when they back off & step into the real world demand will drop even further...just relax & worry about things you CAN change people!
Posted by: Jimmy of sydney 4:20pm today

Im sure if the media didnt belt this up all the time people wouldnt expect it to happen and the petrol companies wouldnt raise their prices every week. BE QUIET!!!!!
Posted by: Brad of Sydney 4:57pm today

I haven't noticed the barrel price go up in the last few days so what gives with the prices going up all the time. All the big oil companies lately have been talking up big about how we will be paying $3 a litre soon enough and how we have among the cheapest petrol in the world and should not complain about having to pay more because we already should be etc etc blah blah blah. The price graph from shell is dated 2006 with our price at 115c. With us now seeing 170c per litre it would put us up into the top half of the graph now. Talking everything up big like they do is supposed to soften the blow when they greedily up their profits which have apparently doubled in the past month. So prices are going up not primarily because of world oil prices, but lots more than necessary because the companies are having a massively greedy binge on our money because they can.
Posted by: Pete Petrass of Canberra 5:30pm today

Well the Show Pony has finally admitted he is responsible for the state of the economy. He says he has to take the good news with the bad news. Well the good news is, it would appear he has finally decided to stop passing the buck.Of course this will remain to be seen. Now that he has admitted the current state of the economy is not John Howard's fault let's look at the facts. When the Howard government lost office inflation was running at 2.8%, it is currently 4.1% variable home mortgage interest rates were 7.8%, currently they are 9.4%. These numbers are set to get much worse. The Rudd government is a Socialist government, 52% of the people democratically elected this government, now the other 48% of us have to put up with the ramifications of Socialism. This will manifest itself in the form of the lowering of wages, high unemployment, and as strange as it may seem continuing high inflation, and interest rates. The Utopian philosophy of all Socialist governments is to make everyone equal. Their recipe for doing this is to bring everyone down to the lowest common denominator. This process is generally put in train by lowering the wages of those on the upper income scale. The next step is to slow down the economy in order to create unemployment thereby catching the jobless in the government safety net. These people then form the basis of the new lower socio economic order which is used as a bench mark to measure the affluence of those still lucky enough to be employed. I remind readers of Gough whitlam's words. " If there are people out there who choose not to work but prefer to go to the beach , then they should be paid to do so". I would also like to point out the work ethic philosophy of the Liberal Party. " He who works harder should get more" , and the Labor philosophy. " He who works less should get equal". Folks welcome to the world of Socialism.
Posted by: Tom Griffin Q.B.C. of Lochiel N.S.W 1:15am March 05,


Well concratulations - I won't be able to get to work or drive my kids to school or anywhere for that matter,will lose my job coz I can't get there,will lose my house coz I can't pay it off with no job........and where do I go from there??????? And what will my kids do as new young adults with jobs? AND I WON'T BE THE ONLY ONE! What the hell is happening to us????????????????????????????????
Posted by: Oz 7:58am March 05, 2008

I really pity the 80% of people in your poll who are just over-reacting to this hype. Early in 2005 it was boldy predicted that by the start of 2008 petrol would be $2 a litre. It isn't. During the 1970s there was so much hype around oil shortages (it was supposed to run out by the mid 1990s) that Holden realeased a smaller-than-Falcon Commodore so it would be more fuel-efficient and lost the market lead until a decade later. Petrol companies love these bold predictions because it adds justification to any significant price hikes. Its a pity most fools believe them.
Posted by: Jack of Padstow 7:53am March 05, 2008
 

incentivation

Hmmmmm....
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zimmerman8k said:
haha, rudds latest soundgrab on the news "we're gonna put the blowtorch on OPEC to increase production!"

ROFL
He is certainly deluded. So much so, that he thinks the Australian PM has influence..
 
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Be interesting to see how this all plays out with regard to the "green taxes". I suspect that on polls where people say they support moves to reduce carbon emissions they don't realize how much it will cost. If green taxes force fuel prices up even further I don't think they will last for long. The UK Government is already being forced into a backdown on green taxes by a pissed off public who is sick of tax rises.
 

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