In April 1988 Labour deregulated the price of petrol in New Zealand, ending 55 years of government control over both purchase and selling prices. Although petrol selling margins could now be set by individual retailers, most large petrol stations were leased by the four petrol distributors which controlled prices to suit the volumes of oil they carried and to protect market shares. Still, deregulation has meant, in the years since, that local petrol costs, and the economic consequences flowing from them, have been directly influenced by world oil prices. In early October 2004 the price of crude oil surged over US$50 barrel for the first time. The reasons were as diverse as Hurricane Ivan disrupting Gulf of Mexico production, China’s increasingly voracious oil appetite and Nigerian strikes but, with growing concern about ongoing supplies, some experts expect the barrel cost to climb over the US$60 mark.
Bob Brockie, National Business Review, 14 May 1988
From the NZ Cartoon Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library, P O Box 12349, Wellington, Tel/fax 04-474 3154
The national collection of cartoons and caricatures
