We keep hearing the rising price of crude oil as the excuse for all sorts of price increases including petrol spiralling to over $1 a litre, but who said oil is getting more expensive?

It is in US dollars, but why is the oil price the only money amount you will find in the news media without a conversion to Australian dollars? If a story mentions a fine levied in the US, it is invariably converted to Australian dollars, leaving us wondering why anyone would be fined $289.23 or some such silly amount. But the oil price is always in US dollars, which allows commentators, oil companies and politicians to refer to the alarming rise in oil prices.

Before the most recent upward trend, crude oil was about $US28 a barrel and our dollar was worth about 50 US cents, making oil $AUS56 a barrel.

At the end of April, oil almost hit $40 per barrel, but our dollar was worth 72 US cents, putting crude oil at just over $AUS55.50 a barrel. In other words the price of oil had gone DOWN in Australian dollars.

Even allowing for the decline in our dollar’s value in the first part of May, there is no great increase – and the cost of crude oil is only a small part of the cost of production.

We are also told that our petrol prices are tied to Singapore prices. Why? Cars cost a huge amount of money in Singapore, but the price of a new car in Australia doesn't rise accordingly. Some foodstuffs are less expensive in Singapore, but our food prices don't go down. So why should petrol follow Singapore trends?

Isn't it time someone told the truth about petrol prices?