Strikes, petrol costs to disrupt holidays

AUSTRALIANS face holiday travel chaos, with refinery problems driving up petrol prices and possible industrial action restricting flights.
Petrol prices around Australia rose up to 5c a litre over the weekend, with "significant'' issues at refineries affecting fuel supply and compounding problems in the eastern states.

At Holbrook, about halfway between Sydney and Melbourne, the Mobil station was unable to sell regular unleaded petrol, forcing motorists to buy premium petrol at $1.49 a litre.

The service station manager said he had not received deliveries because of "problems at the refinery''.

A spokesman for Mobil was unavailable for comment yesterday. But a Caltex spokesman confirmed "significant problems'' with petrol supply in the eastern states because of mechanical problems at refineries.

"There is nothing untoward or suspicious about it, it's just the retail shortness of supply compared with demand,'' he said of the pre-Christmas price rises. "That is the most likely explanation for retail petrol prices being somewhat greater than average.''

According to petrol price-tracking organisation Fueltrac, Brisbane had the cheapest capital city fuel in the country, at 123.3c a litre. Motorists in Sydney were paying an average of 138c, with prices of 136.9c in Melbourne, 131c in Hobart, 135.9c in Adelaide, 138c in Perth and 147c in Darwin.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says petrol prices have recently been well over international benchmarks. It has asked the oil companies and two supermarket chains to explain their price rises.

Air travel disruption

Australians also face potential problems in the air as industrial action could be taken by 1700 Qantas airline engineers from January 9.

The Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association is planning industrial action in response to Qantas's announcement to establish its first airline repair base in Malaysia, igniting fears it will move most of its maintenance work offshore.

After an open ballot returned a vote of overwhelming support for industrial action, the ALAEA is planning to refuse to work overtime, or do any higher duties or secondments from January 9.

ALAEA federal secretary Steve Purvinas said the union would also consider four-hour rolling strikes that would cause the largest disruptions to the nation's air travel since the 1989 pilots' strike.

Representatives from the union will sit down with Qantas on January 4 for a further round of negotiations. The union is asking for a wage rise of 5 per cent a year.

source: news.com