Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to share the concerns expressed by the member for Page, and I thank the member for this motion. I recognise that petrol prices are predominantly dictated to us by global oil markets, over which the Australian government has little control, and I also recognise that the government relies upon the fuel excise tax to fund the maintenance of our federal roads and infrastructure.

But, as the member for Page rightly points out, there is one area in which the government certainly can act, and that is to enforce appropriate competition policy. I feel, as a member with a rural electorate, that we pay a rural petrol tax. I recognise that the cost of petrol is likely to increase somewhat to account for transportation costs, and further if it is shipped. But I also recognise there are higher operational costs in rural and regional Australia to account for this as well, and we are paying an extraordinary amount extra, above what metropolitan Australians are paying.

There are reasonable grounds to suspect that there is anticompetitive behaviour occurring, and, as such, collusion or abuse of market power between regional and rural Australia and metropolitan Australia, and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission should step in. Farmers, growers and other rural Australians have long known that Coles and Woolworths have sought to squeeze Australia's agricultural supply chains in the pursuit of short-term profit at the cost of the long-term viability and sustainability of agricultural production for the domestic markets in this country.

It's never completely clear whether anticompetitive behaviour, as such, as a tactic—collusion—is occurring or not. But what is clear is that there is tacit complicity in the tactics that the Coles and Woolworths giants use against their agricultural suppliers. The way that they relentlessly squeeze our agricultural producers is unconscionable. It is this systemic undermining of the viability of Australia's agricultural production that I believe warrants further investigation.

The ACCC undertook a valuable investigation into the issue in 2008, producing a report on the competitiveness of retail prices for standard groceries. I would urge every member in this place to read the book Supermarket Monsters by Malcolm Knox; it is a sobering read, as to the price of the dominance of Coles and Woolworths, the two mega-retailers in Australia. In hardware, in petrol, in general merchandise, in liquor and, above all, in groceries, Coles and Woolworths jointly rule Australia's retail landscape. On average, every man, woman and child spends $100 each per week in their outlets. Knox reveals in his book the intimidating tactics of this duopoly. They take our farmers, our food producers, right to the edge. They don't want to kill them off; they just want to take them right to the edge, where they're on their knees, and then, when they think that they're on their knees, they'll take them even further. I know so many producers who say, 'I just can't afford to deal with the duopoly. I'd rather forgo production than have to deal with such difficult circumstances, where, if there's a special on, it's expected that the producer will wear the cost, over and over again.'

So, quickly: firstly, I recommend that the ACCC, as a matter of urgency, refresh their 10-year-old inquiry, but also provide specific recommendations on what regulations the government needs to implement to improve the operation of free and fair competition in domestic markets for agricultural products. Let's be clear: no other nation in the world has the concentration of our supermarket duopoly, and it affects our farmers more than anyone. Secondly, the ACCC desperately needs divestiture powers—that is, the power to break up uncompetitive or market-power-abusing monopolies and duopolies. I know the government has talked about this with respect to power companies. It has been the position of Centre Alliance for quite some time that we should have this more broadly across the scope. We believe that those powers should lie with the Federal Court, because ultimately we have a duopoly system, and the fines that now happen with the courts are just part of doing business when companies—Coles and Woolworths, in particular—are found to be anticompetitive. It's just a cost of them doing business. We need to have the power of courts to break them up so that their behaviour will change. I commend the member for this motion. We need to talk more about this in this place.

Debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 13:25 to 16:00

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