Federal Member for Hume Angus Taylor says he has been in personal contact with Chairman of the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) Rod Sims, to push for a formal review into Southern Highlands petrol prices.

“I have sent the material forwarded to me by Southern Highlands residents to the chairman of the ACCC and I have had a personal response back from him.

“I’ve made a very strong representation that the Southern Highlands should be one of the next regional petrol review locations. I know the chairman and I’ve made it very clear that I think this is a priority,” he said.

Mr Taylor highlighted the importance of competition in the area, particularly with new independents.

“I firmly believe we don’t have enough petrol stations in the highlands to drive the competition that you see in the metropolitan areas of Sydney and Melbourne or regional centres like Goulburn.

“We need to drive competition by expanding the market and I think the work the council is doing, in finding these sites or at least giving DAs for these sites, is very important.

“I’m pleased to see that that there are new independents coming in but we have to make sure that they’ve got good locations.”

Mr Taylor also stressed the importance of transparency of petrol prices.

“Just as important, customers need to know what the differential in prices is. It’s no good someone coming in and not being able to market their difference in price to motorists. This is particularly important in the highlands, because there are distances between these locations that you don’t have in the city.”