Cheap Petrol: Action Plan (Australians.)

[offline]

Petrol prices - worth thinking about!

I called the number on the bottom of the email, and it is for real. This initiative does come from Barry Minster, worth calling and chatting to him if you need reassurance. Apparently we are going to hit close to $1.35 a litre by the winter.

If this happens the prices will flow on down to the price of every thing we buy! Want petrol prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united action. Philip Hollsworth, offered this good idea.

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy petrol on a certain "day" campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt ourselves" by refusing to buy petrol. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work.

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a litre is CHEAP at .89 / .95 cents, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace not sellers. With the price of petrol going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of petrol come down is if we hit someone in the pocket by not purchasing their Petrol! And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.

Here's the idea:

For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY petrol from the two biggest oil companies (which now are: BP and Mobil). If they are not selling any petrol, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of BP petrol buyers. It's really simple to do!! Now, don't wimp out on me at this point...keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!! I am sending this note to a lot of people. If each of you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300) ...and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000)... and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all. (and not buy at BP and Mobil) How long would all that take? If each of us sends this email out to ten more people within one day of receipt, easily 7 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!! I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you! Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on.

PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE 80 cents a LITRE RANGE.

It's easy to make this happen. Just forward this email, and buy your petrol at Shell, Caltex, GAS. or Gull Outlets and drive past BP and MOBIL Stations.

Barry Minster
State President
Ex Service, Service & Veterans Party

www.esvp.asn.au

13 Ermington Place
Kew 3101
Telephone: 03 9816 9713

[themichael]

I always heard Australia was about a year behind the US. I even had auditors tell me it felt like a time warp. Amazing sights though. I do want to visit but a fellow photographer told me you need permits to take pictures of anything. My camera is surgically attached according to my wife.

The don't buy gas/petrol from the top guys emails were circulated last year in the US. The boycott on buying was popular three years ago.

I thought this had died. Ranks at the top of the list with the email fee charged by the post office, keep you email account active by forwarding 100 emails today, and free whatever from a major corporation.

I think some of these are started by spammers looking to get valid email addresses. My spam jumps up a couple of months after I get a batch of these.

[offline]

I always heard Australia was about a year behind the US. I even had auditors tell me it felt like a time warp. Amazing sights though. I do want to visit but a fellow photographer told me you need permits to take pictures of anything. My camera is surgically attached according to my wife.

The don't buy gas/petrol from the top guys emails were circulated last year in the US. The boycott on buying was popular three years ago.

I thought this had died. Ranks at the top of the list with the email fee charged by the post office, keep you email account active by forwarding 100 emails today, and free whatever from a major corporation.

I think some of these are started by spammers looking to get valid email addresses. My spam jumps up a couple of months after I get a batch of these.

Am I wrong in finding your post a little patronizing? I have heard that “time warp” feeling expressed a number of times by US visitors. They say they are referring to the the friendly and laid back culture which reminds them of “home” in the fifties or later. I'm not sure what you are referring to, but if you condescend to come to Australia, I'd suggest you come soon. We are slowly adopting those advanced societal facets and political welfare policies that assist middle class Americans to sleep in fortified “villages” with security patrols, locked doors and guns under the pillow. :P

The boycott on buying petrol may have been popular three years ago in your state, but FYI “Australian” boycotts been active in one form or another since the seventies fuel crisis. If you had read the post you would have understood this is just a development of an older scheme. It may well be a little naive and ultimately futile, but I'm willing to give it a go.

If you had checked the links (which are authentic) you would understand that this is not meant to be spam, but rather a legitimate attempt to curb prices.

Australia is no more restrictive than the US in photographic requirements. Some things require permits but this is for a reason. If you want to go snapping photos around an Aboriginal site, for example, the permit goes towards the cost of educating you about how to respect their cultural and religious norms. You may be asked not to photograph certain sacred sites, but they can't stop you, and there are always professional images available you can purchase.

Any photographer worth his or her salt will also always carry some standard disclaimer or model release forms. If you want to go to a secured area, you will face the same sort of red tape you would get at home.

[themichael]

If I offended I am sorry. I have been a little surly of late. Chronic pain from an old car accident (not my fault) and high drug resistance.

Your boycott may work. In the US it never did or ever will. All the major suppliers are owned in part by owners of other major suppliers. The 'indie' stations buy from the major players. Big oil get their money no matter what. If it works for you them maybe the threat will work here.

For the spam thing, most people don't know how to foward stuff properly. Use the BCC option to prevent valid email collection. The email boycott letters I got contained about 200 address per email. Big buck to a spammer. I got the "email postage fee" message and sent a VERY nasty note about how gullable people are (how does the post office know how many emails I send) and the fact that I now had over 500 email address that I could sell (if I was so inclined). The only responses I got were who are you?(3) and I'm telling your ISP (1).

I hope Australia isn't more restrictive. Since the Trade Center bombings photographers are being harrassed. Several have been escorted out of events they were sent to shoot, a couple of guys I know were arrested and spent months in the system losing money, respect, and nearly their jobs cause some cops overstepped they bounds, and one student (I lost the link to the story) was treated very badly by the police. They didn't bother the other photographers, just him. He wasn't "white" enough. You can't take a picture of a bridge but you can BUY pictures of it in the gift shop!

I've stopped shooting street/candids because of this. Don't want a label of child molester stuck on me just because a kid wandered into my shot, or you can see a three year old's foot. Landscapes are getting tricky with all the lawyers out of work. Terrorist response teams descending on digiscoper. (People with cameras attached to birdscopes) Maybe its a good thing its been overcast since October when I bought my telescope. I could be shot by the cops. Nearly was in another occasion. (pipe or gun?)

As for the time warp. The auditor was refering to the crap TV and movie culture we export. (I am sorry for that too and very embaressed) She always stopped in Australia last to catch up on her favorite TV shows before coming home.

Seems the fermented grains are kicking in

Good luck with your boycott. I hope it works. Really do.

Mike - just slightly smarter than the average fat lazy bigotted American.

Just a note - my doors are unlocked, my dog is always hungry, and my gun is in the corner (loaded with rock salt - no self defense laws here. Besides dead people don't learn).

[offline]

No problems Mike. My tongue was firmly in my cheek re: the guns under the pillow statement. Don't be sorry for your TV culture. We make crap ourselves and export it (mostly) to the U.K.

Sounds like the US is like China these days. I had similar sorts of problems shooting there. I was even a government "guest" one time, a.k.a. locked up The only difference is if the cops shoot you in China, your family has to pay for the bullets. In the US I gather its no charge, just like Australia.

I also have a hungry dog so we have a lot in common. But only a few months ago I was taking photos of kids playing in a park. I even asked and got permission from parents to take up close photos of their kids, which I did. No one asked for my ID and no one was worried. I guess if I had gone to a school playground I would have been approached, and rightly so. Otherwise people here are more relaxed it seems.

Good luck with the fermented vegetable juice.

[VCDHunter]

We make crap ourselves and export it (mostly) to the U.K.

Yes you do don't you you bastards ? Neighbours ? Kylie Minogue ? I'm hoping one day you'll get Eastenders off us then you'll know what its like.

Good luck with the petrol thing - we have haulage contractors here who protest against fuel price increases by blocking the petrol lorries in and stopping them from getting to the garages to fill up the pumps. It doesn't help anyone as everyone simply rushes to the pumps to fill up before the pumps run dry.

Ironically the haulage contractors don't pay full pump prices as they are subsidised anyways.

[offline]

I'm hoping one day you'll get Eastenders off us then you'll know what its like.

We had Eastenders but it did not have enough beach
scenes to compete with the home grown. Our soaps
have to have sand.

We gave you Rolf Harris
Will you ever forgive us?

[VCDHunter]

We gave you Rolf Harris
Will you ever forgive us?

Tie me kangeroo down sport !

I like Rolf - his art stuff was cool as a kid. He's pretty much a national institution now, with his didgeridoo and extra peg. He does some animal hospital program now strangely enough.

[AlecWest]

The problem with the whole idea is that oil prices will continue to increase even if the U.S. or Australia or any other nation boycotts one, two or even all oil companies. For every barrel of crude oil we won't buy, China will buy it. It is China's growing insatiable appetite for oil (coupled with their own lack of domestic supply) that is feeding the current price frenzy and it's not going away.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=aJCl0VJuJ1ZA&refer=asia

The only way to guarantee low fuel prices in the future is to take OPEC out of the loop entirely. In short, all industrialized nations need to move toward renewable fuel sources (hydrogen fuel cells), extracting hydrogen from sea-water if need be and using nuclear power plants to do it. Yes, I said nuclear power plants. And, we also need to rely more heavily upon solar energy.

About a decade ago, the BBC produced a TV series called "The Energy Crunch." In it, they interviewed a solar engineer who said that 75 square miles of land in the desert southwest (USA) could provide for all the electrical needs of the United States and Canada ... through the year 2050, without expansion of the facility. I'll bet the "outback" of Australia could provide similar solar alternatives.

This is one of those situations where government needs to be prodded into action. Currently, governments are cow-towing to private interests in the oil industry. And frankly, I think it's time to rattle a few cages on that score.

[pchan]

This is fossil fuel economy. It's source of power for most of the machineries. If you don't buy, someone else will. It will peak someday since there is no replenishment as it takes million of years to form. Nuclear will buy us time. But uranium will peak too.

Should have done more research on hybrid or fuel cell vehicles earlier.

[pacmania_2001]

The problem with the idea of boycotting BP is that most of the other petrol stations buy their fuel wholesale from them.

[garman]

Has anyone also considered that taxes on fuel cost increase the products cost. I think that is why government never really bats an eye lash when the price of crude goes up, more taxes to collect. I believe our government should take that money and invest in alternative fuel sources. Not really into the nuke power. Wind, solar, wave, geo-thermal, YES!!!. I'm sure there is more sources out there. It's funny has anyone ever considered the conservation method. Here in canada we don't do it, we wait for the next technology to assist us, when I think the real problem is lack of conservation. My 80 cents a litre oppinion. -garman