King Hazza,:>> You'd actually be surprised at how many substances a car actually CAN run on perfectly well (alcohol for one, and most forms of plant-oil);<<

God don't wish that upon us Hazza, the oil companies will buy up all the Canola farms and what would we do for margarine.

The idea is quite simple really, Rehctub. If people rush to Coles to
buy their cheap milk, they might also buy their hormone free beef
there. That has to be a good thing :)

Sonofgloin, there is plenty of competition in the banking market.
4 major banks, regional banks, credit unions, take your pick.

The big 4 dominate the market, as people prefer to place their
deposits in the safest banks. The big 4 have the highest ratings,
compared to smaller banks like Bendigo. That also means that the
big 4 would pay a bit less for money borrowed overseas. If the
big 4 were struggling financially, the first thing that would happen,
would be, their cost of borrowing would rise, you the consumer would
pay more.

The problem exists through changes into our trade and employment practices
and legal practices acts that have basically removed any ethical barriers on profits.

It is a simple process of which the product is, "that it is the market that should determine, that the rich should get richer, and the poor get poorer".

The question is not whether or not we should complain , it is
"why" does the petrol price go up and down by up to 16 cents a day,
in perfect unison throughout competing outlets, Australia wide?".

Answer. "Because it can". And because they are not actually competing,
nor are the banks, the insurance companies, the supermarkets, the large
retail chains etc and so on.

The ACCC has no adequate legal framework/power whereby it can act,
and actually win a case, when comes to price fixing or collusion.
It is a toothless instrument shadow, of the body it replaced.

And Australia today is a much less fairer place, than the one in which I was born.

Yabby:>> Sonofgloin, there is plenty of competition in the banking market. 4 major banks, regional banks, credit unions, take your pick.<<

Yabby given the recent blow up over "signaling" the rate rises between the big four banks, your "take your pick" exclamation is hollow, as hollow as the ACCC.

In 1960 Australia had a population of 10 million and we had five national trading banks that provided services to both the domestic and commercial segments.

In 2010 we had a population of 22 million and five banks providing that spread of services nationally, now in 2011 we are back to four majors. The regional banks and credit unions are minnows, like a local shop, we had an upcoming supermarket but the ACCC helped Wespac to eat it.

Sonofgloin, I remind you that Keating deregulated the banking system.
So there are all sorts of banks to choose from. You too can go
and start a new bank, if you are prepared to risk the money or
win the trust of investors, that you won't lose the lot on their
behalf.

Bankwest tried pretty hard to break into the ES markets, but it seems
people prefer to stick with their old banks. In the end, the
British failed and Comm Bank bought them out.

St George was not rated as highly as Westpac, so had to pay more
for its money. Coming under the Westpac umbrella has benefitted
their customer amd was a good thing to happen, with the GFC looming.

Banks look over their shoulders, to see what the other guy is doing,
just like every other business.

What the banking enquiry revealed was just how narrow a net margin
that most banks work on, generally less then 1% of their total
assets. So if they paid 1% more for their money or charged 1%
less, they would make nothing at all. Hardly a rip off.

"God don't wish that upon us Hazza, the oil companies will buy up all the Canola farms and what would we do for margarine."

That is quite a good point Gloin- it is alleged that oil would companies try to buy out car companies to actually scuttle any production of non-oil-dependent cars- so that idea may not be too surprising.
(although personally I find Margarine to be far more suited to powering a car than to be eaten, myself).

The only hope is that either the government takes responsibility to implement infrastructure for alternative fuel (which IS arguably their job) or numerous wholesalers of the alternative fuel products (or electric cars) quickly jump into the market providing too large a competitor base for buyouts and price-fixing to take control