WA Energy Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson has told motorists to give ‘extraordinary’ surcharging servo a miss

WA Energy Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson has told motorists to give a surcharging service station a miss after its “extraordinary” additional fee on the Easter long weekend. Ms Sanderson on Sunday expressed her outrage and called for an investigation into a decision by a Wheatbelt retailer to add a 20 per cent holiday surcharge to fuel bills. “I would urge consumers to vote with their feet and go to the next petrol station,” she said. “I think that is extraordinary and I’d certainly be suggesting that the consumer Commissioner investigate. “I’ve never heard of a fuel station charging a holiday surcharge.” According to one driver, the added levy pushed diesel to a staggering $4.06 per litre. The business also had a $200 limit on fuel transactions over the Easter break and banned jerry cans. It comes as fuel prices have begun to decrease after the Federal Government announced it would halve the fuel excise and State’s agreed to forgo increased GST on the higher prices. But Opposition leader Basil Zempilas said on Sunday there were still concerns over diesel disruption across WA. “There are legitimate concerns from West Australians about fuel supply, about it getting to the right areas. “And about whether there’s going to be enough diesel for the industry and for the farms and for those motorists who need it. “And we haven’t seen anything so far to suggest that the premier has this in hand and is on top of it.” However, Ms Sanderson argued that fuel disruption had improved across hard hit areas in regional WA after the State government enacted emergency measures. She said fuel suppliers have begun to provide greater clarity on their disruptions and there had been a “huge improvement” in fuel flowing in the hard-hit Esperance and Goldfields regions. WA Premier Roger Cook had invoked a “state of emergency” last week to compel big fuel suppliers to hand over information about their volumes and disruption after several areas reported shortages. While the State government says it will first focus on getting information under the Under the Fuel, Energy and Power Resources Act 1972, the legislation provides the legal framework to intervene in the supply chain. “While the deadline for this information is still in a few days, we’ve already received very relevant and important information from the fuel companies, so the emergency orders are already working,” Ms Sanderson said. “I’m not going to give a running commentary on who’s provided what, and we’re not going to release the information either, because it is highly sensitive commercial information. “But what I can say to the community is that we are getting the information that we need. “Over the last 24 hours, we’ve seen a strong resupply, with an additional 22 stations having been resupplied. Of these, 17 are Ampol and five are Shell. “I understand there are reports on Friday of outages in Dunsborough and Margaret River. They were very quickly resolved.” Ms Sanderson said the government was working closely with Viva Energy to ensure “priority sectors” like agricultural, mining and transport in the region were adequately covered. It comes after the WA government also made it mandatory for all stations in the State to report their prices to FuelWatch and significantly increased penalties for those which don’t. Mr Zempilas said he was still skeptical that the fuel was reaching all areas of the State which needed it. “Yes, the fines will… certainly will make the service stations, I hope, take notice. But does it guarantee that the fuel supplies get to where they need to get to? I’m not certain of that,” he said on Sunday. Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen had sought to assure Australians ahead of Easter that they wouldn’t run out of fuel, insisting reserves had climbed to 39 days after a string of government measures. Speaking in Sydney at the weekend, Mr Bowen said Australia had just over a month of petrol in supplies (1.7 billion litres), 29 days of diesel (2.6 billion litres) and 30 days of jet fuel (847 million litres).