WA petrol scheme no savings

A fuel price notification scheme being considered by the Rudd Government might deliver kudos but will offer motorists no real savings, the Opposition says.

Opposition finance spokesman Peter Dutton said the scheme, based on Western Australia's FuelWatch, could increase bowser prices by cutting out cheap Tuesday specials.

“The Government is desperate to do something and it lacks the imagination to develop a scheme that will have any real impact on prices,” he said.

FuelWatch requires service stations to pre-register and lock in petrol prices for 24 hours, giving motorists a rundown of the outlets with the cheapest fuel.

But while supporters say the system has achieved a 2c-a-litre cut in average fuel prices, critics argue it has also reduced the scale of discounting on the cheapest days of the week's pricing cycle.

The Rudd Government is considering adopting FuelWatch nationally, after appointing Pat Walker, who oversaw the WA program, as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's petrol commissioner.

Australian Automobile Association executive director Mike Harris, who met Mr Walker last week, said the commissioner was preparing advice to government on the scheme.

But the ACCC would have to make public the research supporting a national scheme to placate the states' motoring clubs, which are evenly split on the proposal.

“The position that I put to him ... is that we haven't yet seen any hard evidence that allows us to make a judgment one way or the other,” Mr Harris said.

The states and territories are also yet to reach a consensus on the value of the scheme, which costs WA about $700,000 to $900,000 a year.

Mr Harris predicted they would hold out for funding if the federal Government wanted them to embrace the scheme.

“I have no doubt if they want to use a state-based system, then the states will expect the commonwealth to pay for it,” Mr Harris said.

Have you got any creative ideas for a new scheme to help reduce petrol prices that the government could implement? Let us know in the comments below.

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