Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Hansard source

In 2001, Coles and Woolworths had 50.1 per cent of the market. That was monitored by an ANOP series, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics also had a series. By 2001, when we got to the 13th inquiry on Woolworths and Coles, one of those series indicated they had 68 per cent market control and the other one said 72 per cent. So, regardless of which one you wanted to choose, we're looking at two per cent growth a year. That was in 2001. Both series were discontinued. I asked the ANOP people, 'Why was it discontinued?' and he laughed and said, 'Why do you think?' So we can't even monitor; they've now cut up even our right to monitor how much they control, but no-one would question that their market share is up around 80, 85 or 90 per cent. No-one would question that.

This is the interesting part. In 2001, we took a basket of items—just a little tiny basket—like what people would eat every week, including potatoes, milk, sugar, eggs and bananas. The mark-up in 1991, when they had 50.1 per cent of the market, was 108 per cent. That is outrageous. My family had clothing stores. We also briefly had a couple of supermarkets. There's just no way in the world—my father said, 'People will kill you if you go over 30 per cent.'

In 1991, they were at 108 per cent. But when they get market share going over 70 per cent, the mark-up jumps to 179 per cent. The market was 108 per cent and now it's 179 per cent. People in this place are going to wait till they're making 300 per cent profit. You've never done anything. You realised there was a problem, because there have been 15 inquiries. You had two inquiries going at the same time, and, to quote the great Winston Churchill, 'When you absolutely must not do it, then you must, of course, have an inquiry and, the wider the breadth of the inquiry, the less likely it is to hit a target.' I mean, after 15 inquiries, not one single recommendation has been implemented in this place!

I don't know how much the Liberals are getting and the National Party are getting, but I do know that we paid an investigator to investigate it, and he said, 'They've really covered their tracks.' But we went along to a fundraiser, and he said, 'There were 13 people out of about 40 or 50 people who had their names down.' I don't know which retail outlet it was, but they were managers of either Woolworths or Coles shops. They'd gone along and made a donation not under the name Woolworths or Coles, but under their own personal name. For deceit, that'd take some beating I would think.

I've got nothing against the shoppers union—good on them—but they get site coverage, and I can assure you that they won't have site coverage if the Labor Party does what they should do for the people of Australia. People come into this place and they say 'affordability'. It's the latest buzzword, like 'climate change' has now been replaced by 'affordability'. What have you done on affordability? You just come in here and mouth buzzwords and, of course, you do absolutely nothing about it except hold an inquiry again and again.

I was in a state parliament, and we had a problem in places like the Gold Coast and Mission Beach because rich people went there, and suddenly the price of land shot through the roof, and, of course, poor old pensioners and retired railway workers couldn't pay the rates. So Russell Hinze, a much maligned minister, immediately moved to put A plus B divided by two. There's a problem there. He solved it. We had a trucking problem, and, within two weeks, he'd solved the problem.

When you see a problem like a 200 per cent mark-up on food and you come in here and have the hypocrisy to talk about affordability, how do you sleep with yourself at night? I hope you don't believe in Jesus and the hereafter, because you're going to go to a very hot place, I would think, with your cowardice.

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