Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

to the grocery-pricing process. The ACCC is working with the government on developing a basket of goods which can be surveyed to give consumers more information about which supermarket in their area is generally the cheapest. This information will be included on a dedicated website linked to the ACCC website, implementing another election commitment of the Rudd Labor government. Consumers will of course then be able to make their own decisions, based on their own experience, and will compare quality, service delivery and price, based on their own experience and the information available on the website. Of course, it will not be possible to have the price of every good in every supermarket in Australia, but it is important to remember that, the more information consumers have, the more transparency and information we have in the grocery market in this country.

Another unavoidable expense for many Australians is, of course, petrol. The House is aware of the steps that the new government has taken since its election to introduce more transparency and competition into the Australian petrol industry. The community is particularly concerned about petrol prices in the lead-up to long weekends and holiday periods. In the lead-up to Easter, the increased investigatory powers that the new government has given to the ACCC will be particularly important. On Friday, the ACCC chair, Graeme Samuel, after consulting with the government’s nominee for the office of petrol commissioner, wrote to petrol companies seeking any advance information available to explain any divergence between the Singapore price of oil and the price of petrol in Australia over the Easter period. Honourable members will recall that the divergence between the price of oil in Singapore and the price of petrol—

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