Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Anthony Hill from the AANT says the fuel price hike is unlikely to get better any time soon

Transcript

Anthony Hill from the AANT says the fuel price hike is unlikely to get better any time soon · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: And we have been talking at links this morning about
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: the petrol prices. We know that they will busted over
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the two dollar mark yesterday for diesel and unleaded. Joining
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: me on the line is Anthony Hill, the CEO of
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the aa n T. Good morning to you, Anthony.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Good morning Catie.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Anthony. What is the cause of this fuel hike at
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: the moment? I know some people will have a bit
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: of an understanding, but talk us through it.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Yes, Look, I think I mean a couple of weeks
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: ago when we were chatting it was certainly a supply
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: issue as the globe has been opening up after the pandemic,
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: a major all supply issue. But I think more recently,
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: obviously since the what's going on between Russia and Ukraine,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: that certainly has sporal things out of control a bit.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: And we've now seen the Brent crude all up to
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: over a dollar thirty barrel and one hundred and thirty sorry,
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: one hundred and thirty barrel, which is one hundred and
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: seventy nine Australian And when we look at that, only
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: back in December there was seventy dollars a barrel, so
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: there's been a significant increase there and I think there's
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: been some political band happened just in the last twenty
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: four hours with President Joe Biden of the US announcing
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: their banning of Russian oil and gas imports and putting
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: it into perspect of Russia is the second largest exporter
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: of oil globally, and of course they're they're threatening to
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: push the pricing up even further by cutting supplies to
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Europe in retaliation to the sanctions that have been put
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: on them. So it's looking a bit ugly coding.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: It is certainly sounding that way. So what is it
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: all going to mean for us as consumers?
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Well, I think this obviously has a significant flow on
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: to supply chain and obviously families. So it's ultimately so
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: you know, we will see transport costs increasing that will
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: be pushed to the end consumers they might be wearing
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: that cost. I actually think, you know, it's probably not
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: the end of it when you look at when you
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: look at that I think it was one hundred and
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: thirty three of barrel this morning that potentially, with all
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: this crisis is going on, it's going it could I
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: would suggest, it's going to increase further, pushing prices up
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: even higher.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: How high could we go here?
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Well, I haven't I didn't check this out this morning,
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: but anecdotally I heard that, you know, it was over
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: in New Zealand. It was like it was like four
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: dollars four dollars a liter in New Zealand. With conversion
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: rates and everything is that needs to be worked out.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: But I think, honestly, you know, there's every chance we're
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: going to see this get up to the two dollars
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: fifty march. I would say in the coming week if
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: there's if there's no reprieve, and speak quite honest, I
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: just don't see. We're struggling to be able to point
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: out any practice globally that's going to providing a sort
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: of short term relief at the moment.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it makes it so incredibly difficult for families. You know,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: that impact at the hip pocket. I know that, you
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: know that a lot of us just try to juggle
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: everything from week to week. It's going to have an
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: impact for so many in so many ways.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: It is. And we'll be releasing a report shortly, the
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: Affordability Index again, and you know the last report was
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: pretty horrific and fifteen percent of a typical families and
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: your salary goes towards running a vehicle, and I would
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: say that's going to look at increasing further now, obviously
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: taking into account the new costs. And yeah, so I
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: think look, we've seen Alan Joyce from Quantus yesterday just
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: announcing seven percent price increases on air is because of fuel.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: So it's going to have a flow on effect and
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: ultimately also potentially an issue around tourism and the lights.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: You know, those that were thinking about doing the driving
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: holiday might be sitting back thinking twice. You know, So
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: it's due to the costs.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, Anthony. Do we have any real idea here
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: how long this could all last? I mean, I know
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: we don't know what's going to happen with Russia invading Ukraine.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: That is something that neither you or I've got any
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: idea about in terms of how long that'll last. But
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: are there other options here? When it comes to the oil.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Not this stage. I mean, we really have no control
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: over it at all. There's certain countries in the world
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  Speaker 2: that really control the oil, and there is major supply
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: issues at the moment. So I don't think in the
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: short to medium term we're going to see any relief
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: at all of anything, we may see it escape while
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: the whole Russian and Ukraine incident's happening. So I think that's, yes,
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: not great news, but said, I just don't see anything
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: globally that's going to give us that relief at this
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  Speaker 2: point in time.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Now, is there anything to suggest, because it does seem
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: as though from what I can gather, the terminal gate
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: price it went up significantly yesterday and then pretty much
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: straight away obviously at the BOT it followed. So there's
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: nothing to suggest at this point that anybody's trying to
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: rip us off, is there.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: No. We're monitoring that. So we watch the margins very
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: carefully at the retail at the pump, so we'll certainly
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: advocate if we see that going in the wrong direction,
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: and you'd hope that you know, the retailer isn't going
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: to do the right thing at a time like now
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: with the escalation of pricing, that they'll keep that within reason.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: Obviously they've got a business still to run. But we
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: watch that daily. I've got no team there that the
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: monitoring this and will flag if we see and certainly boys,
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: if there's we see any any major increases in that area.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, do let us know I know, like I said,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: it's just having an impact. It's going to have an
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: impact on so many in so many different ways, and
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: I think it sort of makes us all realize how
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: heavily on we are on you know, on on our
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: fuel in different capacities at this point in time as well. There's,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: like you said, really no change in sight in the
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: near future, but we'll all keep a very close eye
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: on us.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: It is it's unprecedented what we're seeing tob I mean,
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: I think across Australia it's pretty much over the two
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: dollar mark. We'll certainly by the end of this week
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: we'll be across the two dollar market nationally. We haven't
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: seen that before, So this is there really is unprecedented.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: And you know said out about control. But my suggestion
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: would be, you know, even yesterday there was there was
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: a difference in price locally, I think, you know, from
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: from a dollar ninety five to two dollars seven. So
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: use the my fuel in t app before you fill
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: up to the station that's obviously offering the treatish price
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: at the time. Use any discount pouches that you can
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: that you can get your hands on at this time,
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: and obviously go out conservatively.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Hey, we did catch up with Senator Rex Patrick a
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: little bit earlier this morning. He's obviously calling upon the
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: federal government with this fuel excise. I'm assuming that that
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: would make it differences.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: It would, but I think if you look at the
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: if you look at the numbers, if you were to
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: cut pure excise by half the twelve months, it's it's
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: about six billion dollar impact on the budget. So the
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: pure excise does go towards improving roads and infrastructure. So
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: if we if we're taking it away here, it's going
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: to impact elsewhere. And I think, particularly with what's going
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: on the coast the moment with the floods and the lights,
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: need to be significant investment into repairing the roads. And
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: you know, we've got we've got a lot of work
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: to do in our own jurisdiction as well in that
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: area to improve and we saw that a couple of
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: months ago down on the border with the road issues
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: we had with flooding it and the lights. So you know,
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: by doing that, you know we don't it's a set price.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: The excise is set so it doesn't fluctuate with the
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: with the Bowlder price. So I think by by I
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: wouldn't support that. Yeah, you know, we need, we need,
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: we need a lot of infrastructure done.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Hey, before I let you go, I know that you
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: said that. You know, this isn't something that we've seen
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: right around Australia before. We've never had our petrol prices
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: above two dollars in the territory in Darwin before, have we.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: No, that's right, that's right, it's correct. Yes, I said
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: it is unprepredated, and yes it's not good and it's
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: certainly hits the hip pocket of families. But yeah, at
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: the moment, it's a bit of a wait and see,
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: a bit of a crystal ball to where it's going
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: to end up, Katie. But yeah, I think that we
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: can probably expect them further increases in coming weeks.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: We'll all keep a very close eye on it. I
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: really appreciate your time this morning, Anthony. Thanks for having
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: a chat with me.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Thanks Gay. I hope that's a better news next time
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: we talk.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let's hope. So good on you, Anthony. Thank you