I cannot believe that in this day of supposed transparency and equality he has the gall to utter the statement attributed to him regarding fuel prices in Moruya and Batemans Bay.

My gripe is not with the proprietors, managers and staff that manage these outlets, but rather with the parasitical duopoly in Batemans Bay that holds the motoring public to ransom.

Mr Collyer said there has been “very aggressive discounting of petrol prices in Moruya over the past two months”, however, I put it to him when was the last time Caltex retailed fuel for the same price in Moruya and Batemans Bay through the sites they directly control.

The article states that Caltex is only responsible for setting petrol prices at three of six Caltex service stations in the area but failed to mention that these three sites supply the vast majority of the fuel.

To suggest that Caltex takes into account “the number of customers in the area, the volume of fuel sold and the operating costs associated with transporting, sorting and retailing fuel” is a total fabrication.

Oil companies charge the maximum they think they can extract out of any community regardless of fairness or regional consideration.

The article mentioned that Batemans Bay had the fourth highest petrol price in NSW and the ACT. When you look at remote centres like Walgett, Wilcannia, Hillston, is there any wonder the motoring public of Batemans Bay feel justifiably grieved.

I challenge Mr Collyer to provide to an independent auditor selected by the state government, all costs associated with the transport, distribution and retailing, where they incur a direct cost, of petroleum fuels in NSW.

Maybe after due consideration we may find that Caltex has a genuine reason for bleeding the local economy, but I suspect not.

Allan Bright

Catalina