Kiwis 'ripped off' at pump - pensioner

TOO HIGH: Mike Murphy, 76, of Eketahuna, on the high price of petrol.

New Zealanders are paying too much for petrol and are being "ripped off", says Eketahuna pensioner Mike Murphy.

He said oil prices had been dropping for years yet at the petrol pumps prices were standing still.

An avid news follower, reading three newspapers and watching the television news everyday, he said he had been observing the price of oil for years.

"I see it coming down on the news but it's not coming down at the pumps."

Mr Murphy worked as a chef for Hunt Petroleum in Southland in the 1970s and 1980s, when he was a "young lad".

"We all got bonuses every time a well was sunk and they struck oil."

He said earlier this year, "when the barrels were $50 each, prices should have dropped down to a dollar but they never went below $1.70 a litre".

"Last night on the telly oil was $58, down from $62, but we're still paying over $2.09 a litre at the pump. It's not all relative. Where's the extra money going, that's what I'd like to know."

Mr Murphy suspected it wasn't the service stations making the extra profit.

"It's not them to blame - they don't make much."

He said the couple who ran the G.A.S service station in Eketahuna were "lovely" people who were always going out of their way to help others.

"The fellow and his wife start at 6am and virtually work 24/7 and they do so much for the community it's unreal.

"He's out chopping wood for old people and volunteers for the fire brigade, they're the first ones there if anything happens.

"I'm an old pensioner and every penny counts," said Mr Murphy, 76, who was a professional wrestler, known as Doctor Death, from the 1950s until he gave it up in 1984.

"I believe the New Zealand public is being ripped off by government and the petrol companies."

"It just annoys me," he said.