The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) has released its report into unleaded petrol prices which has concluded "that the unleaded petrol industry in Australia is fundamentally competitive. There is no obvious evidence of price fixing or collusion between the major participants in the industry".

The Minister for Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs, Chris
Bowen, has outlined three measures as part of the government’s
preliminary response to the report. They include:

• Writing to the ACCC giving it formal monitoring powers over petrol prices;
• Making the ACCC report to the government every year on its monitoring;
• Beginning
  the search process for a Petrol Commissioner and writing to all of the
  State and Territory leaders seeking their input on possible candidates
  for the role.

The inquiry found that there was ‘no obvious evidence of price fixing or collusion between the major participants in the industry’ and ‘fundamental pricing of petrol is dictated by international factors’.

However, it also found that:

• The major refiners have established ‘a comfortable
  oligopoly’, with the Australian industry being relatively concentrated.
• There
  are ‘significant impediments to the large-scale importing of petrol by
  parties other than refiner-marketers, resulting in very little
  independent importing’.
• The ‘well-defined price cycles in
  Australia’s retail unleaded petrol markets are an enigma’ and the ACCC
  was not given a satisfactory explanation of divergences in prices
  between Australia and price decreases in Singapore.