Annette Ellis (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

that means consumers are getting the best deal possible.

Being workably competitive means that Coles, Woolworths and Metcash have little incentive to destroy the current balance through vigorous price competition. Some of the impediments to more vigorous competition are, first, high barriers to entry due to difficulties new or expanding players have in finding new sites. The behaviour of Coles and Woolworths with their restrictive agreements at shopping centres and gaming of planning objection processes has increased these barriers.

Secondly, we found limited incentives for Coles and Woolworths to alter the existing competitive balance through aggressive price competition.

Finally, we found that there is limited price competition from the independent supermarkets.

All of that led then to recommendations made by Mr Samuel and the ACCC in that report. I will describe three of the recommendations, very quickly. The first one was that we need to do something about planning laws, which the minister has addressed; the second one was in relation to the horticultural code, which has been addressed; and the third one was for the introduction of mandatory unit pricing for all significant supermarkets, which I think has been addressed in passing.

The point that I really want to make is that the report talked about Mr Samuel’s view on what else, beyond those recommendations, has to be done.

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