Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / AANT CEO Anthony Hill says he's asked the corruption watchdog to continue to monitor fuel prices, which have been out of step with the terminal gate price

Transcript

AANT CEO Anthony Hill says he's asked the corruption watchdog to continue to monitor fuel prices, which have been out of step with the terminal gate price · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now we know the cost of petrol is something that
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: we've all been keeping a very close eye on, hoping
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: that it would go down as a result of the
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: fuel excise, and hoping that it was going to go
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: down obviously when the terminal gate price dropped, but we
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: are now seeing that it's going back up. But joining
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: us on the line right now is Anthony Hill, the
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: AANT CEO. Good morning to you, Anthony.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, how are you not.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Too bad now? I know that you've been keeping a
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: very close eye on the situation with the petrol prices
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: and in recent weeks had written to the a Triple
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: C asking them to have a closer look into the
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: prices and why there hadn't been any significant changes despite
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: the fuel excise being cut and also the terminal gate
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: price going down. Anthony, what did they tell you?
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: What they told me, Katie was that they do monitor
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  Speaker 3: obviously fuel right across the country or capital cities and
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: over one hundred and ninety regional locations, and obviously they've
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: been having a close look at in the NT market
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: and data available to them. At the time, following the
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: announcement of the Australian Government to reduce the excise showed
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: that the Darwin had decreased by about twenty five cents
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: per leter, and daily average diesel prices had to decrease
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: by around twenty nine cents per litera between twenty ninth
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: and March and the third of May. So that's one
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  Speaker 3: thing I mean that that to me, that that's just
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: that's that was an expectation based on the fuel excise
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: and that's what was put in place. But what we
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: actually saw at the time was was the drop in
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: oil price and also the drop in therefore terminal gate price.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: And back in I think it was the sixth of April,
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: terminal gate price was one fifty three, and really throughout
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: all the way through to the twentieth of April there
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: was it was one between one fifty three and one
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: fifty four, down as low as one fifty and what
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: we saw through that period was petrol.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Pretty consistent around the one point eighty four point six marks.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so whilst the excise has been dropped at the
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: same time with that reduction, that wasn't flowed through and
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: we're seeing margins there around about the thirty cents over
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: thirty cents a leter.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this is the thing. And now, of course those
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: terminal gate prices have gone back up. You know, even
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: for your unlettered today it's at a dollar seventy seven
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: at the terminal gate. For your diesel it's at a
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: dollar ninety three, so they're quite high. But I guess
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: that's been the concern for so many territories is that
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: when those those terminal gate prices go down, we don't
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: see the prices go down very quickly at all. When
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: they go up, it seems as though the cost goes
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: up immediately at the bowser or very soon after.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: That's right, and that's exactly what we witnessed in April.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: Throughout April, we're keeping a very close eye on that would.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Cause me to write to the April wel C.
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: They've really acknowledged that they need to look at it
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: over a longer, longer period, not just short term. But
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  Speaker 3: to me, as you said, you get immediate reactions at
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: the at the bowser when it when it goes up,
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  Speaker 3: so there's no reason why it shouldn't go the other way.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: And you know, I think that the Department of Treasury
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: they put out they put out a report every every
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: month on fuel and the Department of Treasury.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: The latest one really just confirmed what I mentioned was.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: That it was you know, it decreased a lot terminal
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: gay price over the previous month in March, and but
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: we didn't see any of that flow through.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Is that good enough from your perspective?
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: No, it's not.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: No, no, no, I don't I certainly don't want want
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: to want to rest here with the a triple se
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: because it's you know, to me, it's it is about
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: the margins. I mean, what what But what they've quoted
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: here really was an expectation of what should have happened
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: anyway through through the excise drop. But I said, our
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: our darker which we have years worth, shows that you know,
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: mar traditionally have been that seven to ten cents and
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: we've been over the thirties and it's not good enough.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: And I want to respond to this. The response I
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: got from the atriop we'll see as well. Just pointing that.
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  Speaker 3: Out, that's how can you have margins around seven to
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  Speaker 3: ten cents for so long and then all of a
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  Speaker 3: sudden jump up to thirty and that'd be acceptible.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: So Anthony, where to from here for territories? Because I
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: think a lot of us are just sort of feeling like,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: you know, we don't really know what to do because
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: it seems as though the petrol companies can do what
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: they want and kind of get away with us.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's a non regulated market, so it is tough
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  Speaker 3: and I do think, you know, there's some discussions we
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: can have with the government as well on this, but
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  Speaker 3: I do know that studies in the past have shown that,
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: you know, by having government mandate.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Pricing, that that doesn't work either.
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: So there was a bill I think going back into
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: the Lake Joels era that didn't get through, didn't get
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: through parliament, but that was a name in shame bill.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: But we have got the my Fuel app obviously, which
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: exposes the daily price, but when it comes to these margins,
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  Speaker 3: it's just, yeah, it's not good enough. And I think
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: the you know, from a territory point of view that
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: the report also shows that in the territory we were
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  Speaker 3: the most I think for nine or ten days during April.
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  Speaker 3: Darwin is the most expensive nationally and close close by
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: next to Hobart.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: We are going to have to wrap up. I'm running
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: short on time, but I want to ask you very quickly,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: so is there I mean you've touched on there that
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: there is something that the government can do. Is that
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: a path that you're going to go down?
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: I think there needs to be some discussions on this now.
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: Obviously the A troop will see haven't responded accordingly, so.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: I'll write back to them as well.
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, and and we'll just be keeping a very close
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  Speaker 3: diye on the margins going forward.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: And here we go.
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  Speaker 3: It is a fluctuating market as we see. You know,
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: we're down to a dollar fifty up to a dollar
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: seventy seven now at Terminal Gate. So we just need
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: to watch and make sure that the when it does
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: come down that they flow through.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Katie Well, Anthony Hill, the CEO of the aa n T.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: We appreciate your time this morning. Thank you for having
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: a chat with me.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, thank you,