FREE PETROL MARKET CAUSES CRISIS IN AUSTRALIA

Grey River Argus, 14 October 1949, Page 3

FREE PETROL MARKET CAUSES CRISIS IN AUSTRALIA

Return of Rationing Widely Awaited

(Rec 9.5) SYDNEY, October 13.

Nominally the petrol market is still “fiee” in Australia. However, New South Wales is in the throes of a petrol drought. Services of all kinds are now faced with, a possibility of heavy curtailment, unless fresh supplies. of petrol are made available within a few days. A crisis in the building industry, with widespread unemployment, is almost unavoidable according to Mr Stewart Frazer, executive director of the Building Industry Congress. The secretary of the British Medican Association, Dr. J. G. Hunter, said that petrol shortage might cause many doctors to cease to make their visits.

According to a Sydney city engineer important construction and maintenance works are now being threatened.

The secretary of the Service Stations’ Association, Mr J. D. Stewart, predicted that most garages will be dry by the end of the month of October.

However the petrol rationing will be again introduced on November 15. Many motorists say that the coupon system would be far preferable to the conditions of near famine which have prevailed ever since it became apparent that some rigid system of rationing would have to be reimposed. Others are glad that months of uncertainty have at last ended and that a uniform system will arise.

On June 3, the High Court declared the existing Federal Government regulations invalid. There has been no guarantee that the free market would continue. The Federal Government then quickly announced '

the States and the oil companies would make their own arrangements, but there would be no alteration in the amount of bulk petrol entering the country. The oil companies carried on with their several policies, and the State Governments decided independently on their attitudes. Meanwhile motorists and commercial companies using motor transport made the most of their opportunity - -for they could buy as much petrol as they liked and store it where they wished, .subject to. the fire hazard regulations. Then came the coal strike, with its increased demand on road transport.

A long and inconclusive battle between the Government and the Opposition on the petrol question followed. The Opposition demanded that the public be told why rationing was necessary in Australia, while Italy and Germany went ration free. The non-Labour State Governments stood firm in their intention not to allow the Federal Government to usurp their rights. Then the State Premiers were told certain facts in private—and quickly their Governments fell into line. The public has still not been told these facts, but the “free market” front has collapsed. The black marketeers and plain dishonest motorists still have a month to increase their hoards.