Today during Question Time, Abigail asked what the NSW Government is doing to regulate the blatant petrol price gouging taking place in our State in response to the illegal war being waged on Iran.
Abigail said:
My question without notice is directed to the Minister for Climate Change, Minister for Energy, and Minister for the Environment. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's [ACCC] weekly fuel monitoring report released last Thursday found that retail petrol prices in some Australian cities have increased by up to 18 cents per litre more than wholesale prices since the outbreak of the Iran conflict and found that retail prices moved upward on the same day as wholesale prices rather than with the usual one-week lag, meaning that retailers were charging tomorrow's price for yesterday's fuel. Former ACCC chairman Allan Fels has described this as "just exploitation" and "price gouging". The NRMA has called the price increases completely unjustifiable. Yet when the Government convened its fuel security round table on Monday, the key outcome was that retailers voluntarily committed to updating the FuelCheck app when fuel is unavailable. Noting that the Minister in an earlier answer said that nobody should be profiting from this crisis, what actions is she taking or what new powers is she seeking to directly control this blatant example of price gouging?
The Hon. PENNY SHARPE (Minister for Climate Change, Minister for Energy, Minister for the Environment, and Minister for Heritage): A lot more is being done than what the member has just outlined. These matters actually sit with the Minister for Better Regulation and Fair Trading in terms of compliance. There are a couple of things that are going on. The first thing is that we are bringing forward a range of compliance activities. We are working through those. Basically, if what is at the bowser is different from what is advertised, people will have the book thrown at them. We are standing up an extra team. They are working through that. We do not expect anyone to profit as a result of the challenges that everyone is facing. A bunch of compliance work that sits with Fair Trading is being undertaken.
We are also monitoring across the board. We are working with the Feds in relation to the NOSEC, which is the security emergency committee that is working through all of these matters. That is also feeding into the work with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. We again welcome the work that the Federal Government is doing to make sure that price gouging is not occurring. The discussion at our round table was very much on concerns about prices and people unfairly profiteering. There was some pushback—members would be unsurprised to know—from some elements of the industry in relation to some of the challenges on the ground, particularly the changes with the spot market. But the point is that no-one should be profiteering while the challenges are there. The Government is standing up extra compliance work. We expect the book to be thrown at anyone who does the wrong thing.
Ms ABIGAIL BOYD: I thank the Minister for her answer. Unfortunately, the response from the Government at this point seems to be more about transparency over pricing. That is a piece of it, but I specifically asked what the Minister or her Government are doing—or what new powers she is seeking—to regulate prices to protect consumers. I note that in 2022, after the price shocks related to the war in Ukraine, we were all called back to this place on 21 December, just days before Christmas, to urgently legislate new pricing powers in relation to coal prices. Why is the Labor Government not able to do something Matt Kean was able to do in relation to the price gouging we are seeing at the moment?
The Hon. PENNY SHARPE: Aside from that gratuitous hit by the member, the point here is that there are powers in place. I have already flagged a range of other activities in terms of the emergency that we find ourselves in. The challenge that we have is twofold. One is making sure that the people who need fuel are able to get it. I have outlined to the House on a number of occasions today the challenges that we are facing and that we are working carefully with the Federal Government on. There is also a role for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. There are also powers that New South Wales has that we are not enacting yet because they are not needed yet. But, in terms of working through what we will need to do, we are examining what the challenges may be if this continues in the next four, six, eight, 12 weeks. I am not going to pretend that we will put a price cap on fuel. I am saying that we are working through the challenges and making sure that supply is there and that we can get fuel where it is needed.
Read the full transcript in Hansard here.
17 March 2026