MEDIA RELEASE
August 12, 1999

Government Monitoring Rising Petrol Prices

The Government, through the Ministry of Commerce, is keeping a close eye on petrol price movements and will continue to do so, Enterprise and Commerce Minister Max Bradford said today.

"Internationally, petrol prices have risen significantly in recent months. For example, the price of bulk cargoes of petrol from Singapore rose from around NZ16 cents per litre to 24 cents per litre between February and July this year.

"About one-third of New Zealand's petrol is imported, with much of this coming from Singapore. Further, with an open market, petrol from New Zealand's own refinery is priced according to movements in world markets.

"Because of this, the New Zealand motorist can expect to see pump prices following movements in the world market," Mr Bradford said.

Mr Bradford said as all oil companies were operating in the same world market, it was not surprising that if their costs all increased at the same time and by the same amount, that their retail prices would closely follow one another.

"Earlier this year world prices were low and the motorist was able to take advantage of low prices here in New Zealand," Mr Bradford said.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>