The price of petrol seems to be the issue dominating the headlines this week and we are asking AboutSeniors subscribers to share their views on – and solutions to – what seems to be a real crisis in the cost of living.
The editorial in yesterday’s Australian newspaper described this as a “flammable” issue, so here are a few facts in the interests of encouraging some productive discussion:

The price of diesel has increased by more than 17% this year, from $1.48 to $1.74 (26 cents per litre)
The price of petrol has increased by 12 cents per litre during the past 12 months.

The current cost of filling a small vehicle (example VW Golf) with diesel fuel is $85.98.
This converts to about 850 kilometres of travel.
A single pension of $570 per fortnight, or $1141 per month would be reduced to $1055 - $263 per week - assuming travel of 212 kilometres a week.

The ACCC has noted that the increase in diesel has been caused by increases in the international benchmark for diesel prices (Singapore Gas Oil), also factors such as the China earthquake, and china’s actions in stockpiling diesel ahead of the Olympic Games.
The ACCC has announced a renewed focus on the price of diesel and LPG.

Fuel is taxed twice. Petrol is taxed at 38c a litre, and then there is 14c GST, which goes to the state governments. How much tax is enough? Opposition Leader thinks this excise should be reduced by 5c per litre – but has yet to reveal how he would make up for the shortfall in revenue. The Federal Government has included fuel as part of the Henry tax inquiry scheduled to report late next year.

The Federal Government has announced the establishment of a National Fuelwatch scheme to promote competition and transparency
• Notify the ACCC of their next day’s prices by 2pm the day before;
• Maintain this advised price for a 24 hour period; and
• Notify the ACCC of their next day’s prices by 2pm the day before;
• Apply the scheme to unleaded petrol, premium unleaded petrol, LPG, diesel, 98 RON and biodiesel blends.
The petrol price information collected from these petrol stations will be made available to consumers through:
• An email and SMS alert service informing subscribed consumers details of the cheapest fuel in their area;
• A national toll free number where motorists can locate the cheapest petrol in the area they are looking to purchase fuel: and
• A National FuelWatch website with station by station, day by day and suburb by suburb petrol price information.
One Labor Government Minister, Martin Ferguson, had, however, sent a letter to colleagues describing this scheme as “anti-competitive” and a “waste of money”. As recently as this morning he has backed the Fuelwatch scheme, stating he now supported the program, and that Cabinet had quite rightly dismissed his views.
So what is our position on the above?
That whichever way you view it, the soaring cost of diesel and petrol is a real burden for those on low or fixed or low and fixed incomes. Including a review of tax on fuel in an inquiry reporting late next year is hardly fast tracking a solution. Given that those on the Age Pension are already living below the poverty line, there needs to be an immediate review of both the pension and fuel tax to stop the erosion of what is already a meager income.

Post your thoughts now

Geoff’s Blog - The aweful thought of the narrow box

In the Southern Highlands near us is a tiny, 100 year old, stone church.
It was built by the local farmers when there was a small but loyal
population of people who wanted a place to worship. From all
denominations of the Christian belief, they clubbed together and their
wonderful sandstone building still looks fresh and cared for.

Part of the attraction is the small graveyard. The early settler
families have their burial plots here. Some with magnificent headstones
from a bygone era.  Many now have a simple, large local stone with an
embedded brass plate where their body or ashes lie.

As someone who has conducted many burial services I am still puzzled
- even as the inevitable day draws nearer - as to what it must be like
to die. I know that I cannot escape or avoid this final act of being
human. I know that at some stage this body I have inhabited will lie,
lifeless in a wooden box with nothing of my earthly treasures to offset
whatever has taken place as my last breath is drawn.

My wife has been a chaplain at a hospice for some years and has
witnessed many moments of death in her work. She has a considerable bank
of stories where the person dying seemingly sees someone they know
welcoming them into another place. The skeptics say that this phenomenon
is a lack of oxygen to the brain and that it is all imagination or
illusion. But whatever the truth of the matter, death is still the only
game in town for us all. 

Which is why the parable teller’s disciples asked him often about “being
saved”. I’m not sure that they had the same definition as the
televangeists. When they ask about how many will be saved on one
occasion , Jesus replies in a curious fashion. He tells them to “strive
to enter by the narrow door, because many will seek to enter and will
not be able.” Is he creating some sort of exclusive club with sideways
entry and secret passwords?

His following words give us a clue. Some will expect to enter on the
basis that they shared a meal with him, or that they heard him
speak. He says that this is hardly a qualification. What he seems to
indicate is that “being saved” is a matter of what I would call the six
foot box admission ticket. It is to acknowledge that death is inevitable
and to live life in the same framework as he did.

To love God and to love your neighbor as you love yourself, is often to
consign to that long narrow box our selfish ambitions and to see the
world and our eternal future in the light of the one who did the same.
In the entry to this understanding, is the narrow doorway to a wide and
unexpected vista of fulfillment and amazement.

All of the societal and relational pyramid climbing in which we indulge
with its masks, pretentions and petty conceits takes us nowhere except
that lifeless locust shell in the box others lower into the ground.  The
acceptance of the narrow door experience now is to book a seat at the
coming kingdom where in the words of Jesus, “some are last who will be
first and some are first who will be last.” A place where rank and
privilege do not matter at all.

Go figure- it’s outside the box.

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To read Geoff’s previous blogs, click here