KEY POINTS:
Any decisions on whether New Zealand should follow Australia in forcing oil companies to give advance notice of price rises are unlikely until after the election.
Commerce Minister Leanne Dalziel said yesterday she would first want to know the impact across the Tasman of a scheme called FuelWatch, which is to be extended in December from Perth to the rest of urban Australia.
"I'd really want to know the implications of FuelWatch before we go down that track - it hasn't been rolled out in Australia yet," she said.
Ms Dalziel was commenting on an inquiry the Government has announced into fuel pricing in this country, which is to include a study by oil industry experts Hale and Twomey between now and the end of next month.
She has indicated support in principle for the FuelWatch scheme, by which West Australian oil suppliers are required to announce their next day's prices and then stick to them, although she acknowledges it may not suit the smaller and less complex New Zealand market.
Australian petrol prices also rise and fall on a weekly cycle, unlike those in New Zealand.
The new study follows a call by the Automobile Association for an independent inquiry into whether oil companies are as competitive as they could be amid punishing fuel price rises, which have pushed 91-octane petrol above $2.10c a litre with little sign of respite from international oil traders.
Consumer NZ also wants the Government to consider following Australia's appointment of a fuel-price commissioner to help keep the companies in line.
But National Party energy spokesman Gerry Brownlee yesterday slammed the exercise as a "cynical move" which would do nothing to bring pump prices down, given their dependence on the international market and the value of the dollar.
"It's incredibly cynical - it's a complete waste of time in my opinion," he said. "It is an international problem and you've got the whole of the G8 summit focused on it, you've had George Bush make a personal trip to Saudi to talk about it - and the price is still heading north."
"If you listen to the way the minister was pitching it yesterday and this morning, it was all about a suggestion that somehow there was a rip-off going on. New Zealanders aren't stupid - they watch the news at night and see the exchange rate and see the oil price - I think they do know what's going on."
Ms Dalziel said that although any gains were likely to be only "marginal", an inquiry by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission had found definite benefits from providing motorists with information about where to buy their next day's fuel supplies.
She acknowledged she had no proof for her suspicion that oil companies were slower to reduce retail prices in response to international movements than they were to raise them, but said that was a strong public perception, and therefore all the more reason for an independent study.
"It is important to get transparency, so if this is a bit of a myth-busting exercise, I'm all for it - consumers have a right to be informed."
Mr Brownlee would not comment on the Government's share of fuel revenue through taxes, which amount to about 74c from each litre of petrol, except to say: "It would be interesting to see if the Government were bold enough to put that into the inquiry."
AA spokesman Mark Stockdale said his organisation was not seeking a decrease in fuel taxes amounting to just over 50.5c, given that the bulk of these were being spent on land transport needs.
But the Government also receives about 23.4c in GST, of which the AA wants it to waive about 5.6c as the "tax on a tax" it charges on fuel excise.
Mr Stockdale said the Government raised $180.9 million from petrol alone in March, compared with $166.2 million for the same month of last year.
