Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Kennedy for his question. I certainly understand the concerns that he has raised. The circumstances of the closure of the Philip family tomato farms are extremely unfortunate. The government will do all it can to help the employees who have been affected by it.

Like the member for Kennedy, the government, of course, has been following very closely for some time now the developments in our supermarket sector in Australia and the competitive issues that are there. The government is extremely aware of concerns about the behaviour of some of the major players in the retail sector. It is the role of the independent commission and consumer watchdog, the ACCC, to monitor and ensure a competitive market. The ACCC has appropriate powers to undertake that task and the Chairman of the ACCC has made clear in a number of statements that the ACCC is focusing on conduct by the supermarkets and has been urging players to give him the evidence he needs to take the issues forward. He has said the following about this issue:

We've been urging suppliers to give us some evidence to take things forward (in a prosecution) but we've been having trouble getting that. Too many of them are scared. At the moment all we've got is third-party hearsay.

He said the ACCC 'urged suppliers to talk with the ACCC about these issues'.

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