Bob Katter (Kennedy, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

The CEO of Coles, Ian McLeod, has warned against further regulation in food retailing. He has said that parties such as me will be extremely detrimental to areas if Coles and Woolworths are in any way damaged. The spotlight is back on the supermarket giants who claim to be the farmer's friend, while helping fundraise for the mates at Animals Australia by importing cheap foreign fruits en masse while our farmers walk off the land.

Yesterday we saw the arrogance of the supermarket giants—CEOs shining through, with their thinly veiled threat of a voter backlash; politicians who dare to speak up for Aussie farmers, suppliers, companies and communities against the might of this all-powerful oligopoly. We now suddenly have all of these politicians coming out of the cracks to lament the skyrocketing market share.

This place put forward a committee and the committee said, in 1999, that there was no problem with the retail giants. They had 64.4 per cent of the market then, and they have risen at an average of two per cent a year. There was an AC Nielsen series, which was discontinued in 2002, which had 74 per cent of the market being held by them and 68 per cent in the ABS series. They have risen astronomically since then. (Time expired)

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