Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

It's time to take on the supermarket giants, stop the price gouging and bring down prices for everyday people, instead of backing Coles and Woolies to continue to make billions of dollars of massive profits off the back of everyday people's pain. I commend the member for Kennedy for bringing this motion to the House. The government should have brought a bill here to deal with the soaring grocery bills that everyday people are facing while Coles and Woolies make out like bandits. But they're not.

When the Greens brought a bill to say that it is time to break up the big supermarkets when they abuse their market power to get a better deal for consumers, the Prime Minister said, 'Oh, we don't do that kind of stuff, because we're not the Soviet Union and it's not a command-and-control economy.' Well, I can tell the Prime Minister this: it is a command-and-control economy in Australia. Coles and Woolies say what happens, and the government follows. Labor and Liberal—the Coles and Woolworths of politics—do whatever the Coles and Woolworths of the supermarket sector say. As a result, people are paying $20 a kilo for cheese. People are telling me they're having to choose between skipping meals and paying the rent, because they can't afford the prices you get at the supermarkets now.

There is something the government can do about it. Governments can start regulating what these massive corporate behemoths get up to, making billions of dollars in profits while everyday people suffer. That is not right. Could it have something to do with the fact that the supermarket duopoly has donated over half a million dollars to the Labor Party over the last decade? Is that why the Prime Minister says it's hands off and the corporations can do whatever they want?

Well, the Greens and the crossbench don't take dirty donations. We are taking on Coles and Woolies, because it is time to stop Coles and Woolies profiteering and make them contribute to this society. Food is an essential service, not an excuse for the supermarkets to make obscene profits while everyday people have to go without. We are dealing with a massive cost-of-living crisis in this country. Rents are soaring, mortgage repayments are soaring—all under a government that says 'hands off' when it comes to taking on the big corporations: 'No, we couldn't possibly do that.' Well, people have had enough of politicians in this place voting in favour of vested interests rather than voting for the public interest.

This is an opportunity for us in the parliament do something. The reason people put us here is to go and do things that matter to them and that are going to make their lives better. As people watch the cost of groceries going up and up and big corporations price gouging, they ask, 'Why am I paying so much?' I can tell you one of the things we found out through the Greens-initiated inquiry: it's not going to the farmers; they're not making extra billions of dollars of profits as a result of this. It is going straight into the pockets of Coles and Woolies. And what do they then do? With a small amount of that money they give donations to Labor and the Liberals, and the whole system just keeps going on and on and on, and it's everyday people who suffer. Nothing could be more urgent for this parliament than to tackle the rising—the soaring—grocery bills that people are being forced to pay.

One of the things I've heard said—I think it was by the Prime Minister—is: 'You can't take on Coles and Woolies, because they're large employers.' I'll tell you what, it comes as a bit of a shock to everyone who's now having to do their own check out every time they go that, all of a sudden, these big corporations suddenly care about workers.

I'll tell the Prime Minister something else: we're talking about maintaining the size of the supermarket sector. People are going to need to buy food. We just need to break it up. We just need to take on these big supermarkets, Coles and Woolies, and the dominance that they've got. They're using their incredible market power to force people to pay higher prices. There will be jobs in the other supermarkets when they come on board. Again, we hear this furphy that we couldn't possibly break them up, because that is something that is apparently done in the Soviet Union. Well, that well-known socialist republic, the United States of America, has had divestiture powers for years. The UK, the European Union and other countries are using these kinds of powers all the time because they have the guts to stand up to the supermarkets, and so should we.

I say this to Labor and Liberal: you want to know why both of your votes went backwards at the last election? You look at Tasmania and South Australia and wonder why you're on the nose? Why are people, in record numbers, putting third voices into parliament? It's because we've got the guts to take on the big corporations and act for people's interests in the way you won't.

Take a lesson from the weekend. Take a lesson from the last election. Take on Coles and Woolies.

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