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Speaker 1: So joining me in the studio right now is the aant.

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Speaker 1: Well then you CEO, Simon Matthias.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Hi Katie.

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Speaker 1: Hey, yeah, very well, I think I pronounced that wrong,

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Speaker 1: even though I'd asked you before we got on air

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Speaker 1: exactly how to pronounce it.

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Speaker 2: You're very close to getting it.

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Speaker 1: Right, Matthias, I got it, got it in the second

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Speaker 1: time round. Simon will firstly congratulations on your appointment as

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Speaker 1: the new CEO of AAMT. And today's the sixtieth birthday.

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Speaker 2: It is, it is. I've walked into a big occasion.

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Speaker 3: So the organization was founded sixty years ago today, So

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Speaker 3: Minister lawl is hosting a ceremony for us tonight at

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Speaker 3: Parliament and we've got all of our a lot of

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Speaker 3: stakeholders coming into town for it. We've got a fifty

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Speaker 3: year plus members attending and quite incredible, there's over one

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Speaker 3: hundred and fifty fifty year members of the organization. So

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Speaker 3: it just shows you how loyal some of the y

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Speaker 3: you know, our members are absolutely the organization. So yeah,

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Speaker 3: we've got a bunch of festivities organized over the next

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Speaker 3: couple of days, so really looking forward to it.

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Speaker 2: Oh good stuff.

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Speaker 1: Well, congratulations. I mean sixty years. It is a massive

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Speaker 1: feat really, you know, to be operating in the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, you know, it'd be one of the founding organizations here.

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Speaker 3: I mean it's a member based organization. It is the

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Speaker 3: biggest member based organization. There's about twenty three thousand members.

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Speaker 3: So it's a very well supported institution, which kind of

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Speaker 3: adds to the excitement of taking on this role.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it certainly would. Hey, I want to talk petrol

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Speaker 1: prices because it's being predicted that we're in for some

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Speaker 1: more pain at the petrol pump with the Israel Hamas conflict,

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Speaker 1: sparking concerns that oil prices could rise above one hundred

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Speaker 1: US dollars a barrel in the coming months. Now. As

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Speaker 1: we know, the oil price rose almost thirty percent to

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Speaker 1: a record high US one hundred and twenty eight dollars

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Speaker 1: a barrel after Russia's invasion of the Ukraine last year,

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Speaker 1: so it did have a huge impact. And economists have

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Speaker 1: told the ABC that they're predicting that history could repeat

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Speaker 1: itself and that benchmark Brent crude oil price is currently

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Speaker 1: sitting around US ninety one dollars a barrel now It's

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Speaker 1: lots of numbers for our listeners this morning, but I

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Speaker 1: think the only number that they're probably caring about is

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Speaker 1: is this going to have an impact at the bowser?

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Speaker 3: At the bowser, that's right, well, it is. There's two

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Speaker 3: really important factors at play here. One of them is

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Speaker 3: unrelated to the geopolitical situation happening in both Eastern Europe

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Speaker 3: and also the Middle East, and that is the Australian dollar.

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Speaker 3: So the Aussie dollars trading around sixty three cents at

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Speaker 3: the moment, and that's down for about seventy one cents

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Speaker 3: at the start of the year. So as most people know,

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Speaker 3: the lower the Australian dollar, the more expensive it is

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Speaker 3: to buy something from overseas. Most people relate to an

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Speaker 3: overseas holiday or trip to Bali or whatever. But certainly

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Speaker 3: the price of fuel is impacted by that. And we

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Speaker 3: don't really know the direction of the Australian dollar. That's

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Speaker 3: kind of beyond my line expertise, but you know, we

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Speaker 3: hope that it bounces back because that will ease the

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Speaker 3: pressure at the bowser. The other thing that you've referred

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Speaker 3: to is the conflict in the Middle East and also

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Speaker 3: Eastern Europe. So we've got this double whammy at the moment,

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Speaker 3: and the response by OPEC. And OPEK is comprised of

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Speaker 3: about thirteen countries oil producing countries. They control about fifty

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Speaker 3: percent of the world market and they're mostly based in

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Speaker 3: the Middle East. They've decided to hold back supply of

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Speaker 3: oil about one percent of the world's oil supply, which

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Speaker 3: means that there's less oil, which is driving up driving

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Speaker 3: up the price.

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Speaker 2: And the reason they're doing that is.

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Speaker 3: Because it's a bit like a household during when consumer

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Speaker 3: confidence is low, we rain in our spending a bit

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Speaker 3: and we try to save more money. Or they're taking

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Speaker 3: the same approach because they don't know what's going to

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Speaker 3: happen in the Middle East. If the Middle East becomes exploded,

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Speaker 3: you know, more explosive than already is, then then you know,

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Speaker 3: oil supply could be adversely affected. So so that that

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Speaker 3: them limiting supply is pushing up the price.

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Speaker 1: And so then yeah, it has that impact on the consumer.

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Speaker 1: And how are the prices looking around the territory at.

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Speaker 2: The moment, Well, they're not too bad.

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Speaker 3: I mean, the the terminal gate price, which is the

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Speaker 3: price that retailers buy their fuel for that's sitting at

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Speaker 3: around a dollar eighty three, and that's we're talking about

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Speaker 3: unleaded ninety one at the Bowser. It's around in Darwin,

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Speaker 3: it's around two dollars two, and it's in Catherine it's

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Speaker 3: two dollars thirty. So it's, you know, it's it's not

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Speaker 3: too bad. It's it's been hovering around that level now

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Speaker 3: for a few weeks. And we don't have the discounted

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Speaker 3: cycles that you get down south up here, not to

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Speaker 3: the same extent, so that the price stays pretty steady.

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Speaker 3: But if there's further deterioration in other parts of the world,

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Speaker 3: then he knows.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, and that's the worry, isn't it? And then

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Speaker 2: what about the diesel prices?

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Speaker 1: Are they sort of sitting like are they fairly fair

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Speaker 1: I guess or one of a better word.

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Speaker 3: I'm consistent. I don't about fair and consistent. So it's

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Speaker 3: more expensive. It's at the Bowser in darn and it's

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Speaker 3: around two dollars twenty, Catherine's around closer to two dollars fifty,

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Speaker 3: and the terminal gate prices is around two dollars four.

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Speaker 3: So the margin and it's something that AA INT played

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Speaker 3: a big role in the past is monitoring that difference

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Speaker 3: between the terminal gate price yep, and also the Bowser price.

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Speaker 3: And you know, I think in the past some retailers

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Speaker 3: have taken consumers for better or ride.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, but it's not too bad at the moment.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, we try to keep a pretty close eye on

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Speaker 1: it in here. I try to read them out fairly regularly,

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Speaker 1: like those the terminal gate price and then also the

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Speaker 1: price at the Bowser. And the thing that I've noticed

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Speaker 1: over the last few weeks is there seems to be

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Speaker 1: a few servos around the city, like in Stuart Park,

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Speaker 1: that new one that's opened up, in a couple of

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Speaker 1: the other Pie Faced ones that seem to be in

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Speaker 1: a bit of competition with each other, which means that

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Speaker 1: the prices in some cases you're seeing some of those

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Speaker 1: locations are a few cents cheaper than the others.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, So the big advantage that places like Pie

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Speaker 3: Face and on the Run which is establishing a presence here,

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Speaker 3: and Darwen Coal's Express because they have a large range

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Speaker 3: or large non fuel range, so they sell grocery items

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Speaker 3: and a pretty good margin. That decreases their alliance on

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Speaker 3: fuel margins. So you know, the Broadly speaking, the bigger

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Speaker 3: the range or of non fuel products they've got, the

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Speaker 3: better the fuel prices are going to be. And there's

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Speaker 3: also the competition amongst the various retail as well that

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Speaker 3: keeps them honest. There's also I think consumers now have

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Speaker 3: got better information as well. So A N T for example,

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Speaker 3: have got their app which which gives real time fuel prices.

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Speaker 3: So it's really easy now for consumers for motorists to

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Speaker 3: find out where the cheap fuel is in the In

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Speaker 3: days past, you'd have to.

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Speaker 1: Drive, drive around and then defects a purpose, doesn't it exactly?

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Speaker 2: You'd usually find the cheapest one after you feel that

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Speaker 2: that's exactly right.

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Speaker 1: What's your advice for motorists, especially as we're leading into

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Speaker 1: those Christmas months and sometimes you do see those prices

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Speaker 1: fluctuate in that fairness, you know, I disappear a little

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Speaker 1: bit to some degree. What's your advice for motorists.

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Speaker 3: Well, there's there's four really simple things people can do,

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Speaker 3: and there's one one more significant thing. First of all,

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Speaker 3: compare prices, So go go do what I was just

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Speaker 3: talking about. Use the A A N T appp to

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Speaker 3: see what the prices are around town. And you might

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Speaker 3: be surprised to find that. You know, there's a big

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Speaker 3: difference between two stations that are only a couple of

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Speaker 3: k's apart. Become an A and team member, and I

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Speaker 3: know that sounds like a very overt plug. A and

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Speaker 3: Team members do get six cents off a liter at

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Speaker 3: United Fuel, so you know, and over the course of

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Speaker 3: a year, that really does add up.

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Speaker 1: And look, I do want to point out this is

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Speaker 1: not a paid section, definitely not.

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Speaker 2: The question is how do your own money?

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Speaker 1: And that is one way well, and there are others

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Speaker 1: as well, even your likes of Woolies and Coals and

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Speaker 1: that that do this their discount you know, their discount

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Speaker 1: kind of measures too.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Correct, Absolutely drive smart.

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Speaker 3: So there's there's studies that show that if you if

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Speaker 3: you can change your driving habits so that you're become

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Speaker 3: a smoother driver. So don't take off as quickly, be

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Speaker 3: a bit steadier on the brakes, read the traffic a

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Speaker 3: bit a bit better. You can say a significant significant

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Speaker 3: amount of fuel the fuel and the tank's going to

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Speaker 3: last longer. And the other thing is check your car.

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Speaker 3: So I'm I'm a parent with two kids that play cricket.

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Speaker 3: Their cricket kit sits in the boot of the car

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Speaker 3: for the entire dry season, and it's actually it actually

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Speaker 3: does add to you. So get rid of your roof

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Speaker 3: racks if you're not using them, you know, empty your boot.

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Speaker 3: Just make sure your cars is efficient as you can

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Speaker 3: possibly make it, and that will save you some fuel.

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Speaker 3: The other more significant thing you can do is consider

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Speaker 3: that that leap to either EV or hybrid.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, which I know for some people is probably

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Speaker 1: may not be you know, might not be possible at this.

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Speaker 3: For everyone, particularly you know, if you rely on a

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Speaker 3: ute or a four will drive. But if you're if

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Speaker 3: you're using a smaller to medium sized vehicle for driving

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Speaker 3: around town, you can say it a stack on fuel.

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Speaker 3: And there's int is slowly you know, making that transition.

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Speaker 3: So last last quarter, as an example, there were sixty

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Speaker 3: three you know, electric vehicles sold compared to seventeen the

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Speaker 3: year before quarter the quarter the year before.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so.

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Speaker 1: There is there are people that are making that jump

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Speaker 1: to the evs.

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Speaker 3: There are, and some of the manufacturers are also about

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Speaker 3: to introduce you know, your Forward Ranger, those bigger vehicles

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Speaker 3: with the that have that that either hybrid or countric

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Speaker 3: so think there's a Ford transit van at the moment

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Speaker 3: that's already electric forward ranges being introduced in a couple

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Speaker 3: of years time, but we're still a couple of years away.

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Speaker 1: From yeah, from those biggest sort of vehicles. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think it's interesting and and you know, anything that

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Speaker 1: we can all do to try to make sure that

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Speaker 1: we are saving a bit of money on our petrol.

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Speaker 1: Just a very quick one because we've got to get

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Speaker 1: to our next interview. But do you think that that

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Speaker 1: fuel excise should be cut again to ease some of

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Speaker 1: those cost of living pressures?

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Speaker 3: Well, one or two things should happen. They should either

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Speaker 3: cut cut the excise to ease the pressures, or they

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Speaker 3: should be returning the fuel excise to transport infrastructure. So

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Speaker 3: that is the intent of the fuel excise. The federal

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Speaker 3: government said at the last federal budget that ninety one

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Speaker 3: percent of that of the fuel excise will be returned

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Speaker 3: to building transport infrastructure, but at the moment it's only

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Speaker 3: about sixty eight percent, So they're using the fuel excise

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Speaker 3: to fund other non transport related activities. So either drop

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Speaker 3: the fuel excise or return the money to motors.

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Speaker 1: Fair call I Reckon Well, Simon Matthias the ant CEO.

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Speaker 1: Really good to have a chat with you this morning.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time. Thanks Gatie, thank

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Speaker 1: you