Bold claim: You’re being overcharged at the pump, and it’s not just a few bad days—it’s a pattern that’s hitting Australian households hard. But here’s where it gets controversial: prices at many service stations have spiked to levels that the NRMA calls unjustifiable, with roughly half of stations in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane charging around $2.20 per litre for petrol.
The NRMA has urged the ACCC to intervene, arguing that price cycles in Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne have left families worse off while oil companies appear to leverage the Middle East crisis to widen their margins, according to NRMA spokesperson Peter Khoury.
People aren’t waiting for the full impact to arrive. Even as experts forecast pockets of cost pressure to emerge about ten days from now, Australians have already begun filling up at servos nationwide in anticipation of higher prices in the coming weeks.
Khoury also advised motorists to use the My NRMA App to check for the best available prices and choose the cheapest option where possible.
Current national averages for regular unleaded (per litre) cited by NRMA are:
- Sydney: 209.5 cents
- Melbourne: 207.7 cents
- Brisbane: 210.2 cents
- Adelaide: 185.0 cents
- Perth: 189.1 cents
Additionally, roughly 20% of the world’s oil and gas moves through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping lane at Iran’s southern border that has effectively been blocked in this context.
This disruption helps explain the global spike in fuel prices as the Middle East crisis enters its fourth day, fueling ongoing uncertainty about how long price pressures will persist.
