Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move that so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent the member for Griffith from moving the following motion:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) too many people are struggling to afford to feed themselves and their families, while Coles and Woolworths are price gouging to make billion dollar profits;

(b) last week, CHOICE released a report that confirms what Australian shoppers already know: they are being price gouged by the supermarket duopoly, and there is not enough competition in the supermarket sector;

(c) the Greens-led Senate inquiry into supermarket prices made a number of recommendations including making price-gouging illegal, but the Government is only choosing to implement one of those recommendations—a mandatory Grocery Code of Conduct—that affects suppliers but will do nothing to bring down the cost of food for shoppers;

(d) the Albanese Labor Government has failed to take any action that would bring down the cost of food and groceries;

(e) the Chair of the ACCC has confirmed that if divestiture powers were introduced they could increase competition in the supermarket sector and under economic analysis, this would bring down the cost of grocery prices; and

(2) calls on the Government to stop offering Band-Aid answers to the big crises facing people, and implement all the recommendations of the Greens-led Senate inquiry into supermarket prices, including making price gouging illegal, and supporting the Australian Greens' Competition and Consumer Amendment (Divestiture Powers) Bill to introduce powers to break up the supermarket duopoly, which would lower the cost of food and groceries

This is a cost-of-living crisis and the government has to make a choice between backing ordinary Australians getting screwed over by the supermarkets or the supermarket duopoly—Coles and Woolworths—making billions of dollars of profits off people's misery. We know right now that this Labor government is choosing Coles and Woolworths. Oxfam reported that in 2022 alone Woolworths made $5 billion in crisis profits—that is, profits off the crisis going on at the moment—price gouging ordinary Australians and forcing them to choose, make awful choices, between paying the rent, feeding their kids, cutting back on grocery bills and skipping meals just so their kids can afford to eat.

In fact, just this week I spoke to a pensioner using our free food community pantry who told me her rent had just gone up $150 a week. As a result, she could no longer afford to shop at the local Coles and Woolworths. She was being forced to make tough choices. A pensioner who had worked hard all her life is now getting screwed over by a system that always puts the interests of big corporations like Coles and Woolworths ahead of ordinary people.

The reality is there are things the government could do right now. This is urgent because the government could take actions right now the tackle the power of Coles and Woolworths. We know Coles and Woolworths have 65 per cent of the supermarket share in Australia right now, and they use that power to drive up prices and screw over ordinary Australians. There are recommendations from the Greens led Senate inquiry that would tackle this issue in two important ways. First is making price gouging illegal. None of the recommendations Labor has agreed to make price gouging illegal. It is perfectly legal right now for Coles and Woolworths to continue to price gouge ordinary Australians and use their awesome and huge market power to screw over ordinary people. Second is giving the ACCC the power to go and break up Coles' and Woolworths' market share. We know that in the United States, the UK and countries around the world, their supermarket profit shares are much smaller; in fact, Coles and Woolworths have the large profit margins of any comparable supermarkets in the developed world. They do so because they have a huge market share they can use to screw over ordinary Australians.

If we give the ACCC the power to break up Coles and Woolworths, reduce their market share, increase competition and drive down prices, that will help ordinary Australians. But the Labor government have refused to do any of that. Now they have agreed to enforce the code of conduct between suppliers and supermarkets. That is good, but the problem is they've done nothing to touch the huge profit margins Coles and Woolworths are making. Not only that; while they are making these huge crisis profits, Labor refuses to even tax them fairly so we can raise money off Coles and Woolworths and use that to go and help people struggling with the cost of living. They basically get massive crisis profits, pay barely any tax on those excess profits and don't have to reduce their market share like supermarkets around the world, and it's perfectly legal for them to continue to price gouge ordinary Australians. People are getting fed up with a Labor government that continues to tinker around the edges of a massive cost-of-living crisis and refuses to do anything substantial to tackle the structural issues in our economy and political system that allow big corporations to screw over ordinary Australians.

That same Oxfam report found something pretty remarkable—that the share of national income going to corporate profits had reached a record high in Australian history. At exactly the same time we hear about this cost-of-living and inflation crisis, the government seem to have decided they're going to let the RBA jack up interest rates and punish ordinary mortgage holders and renters for a crisis they had nothing to do with. We know who is causing this crisis—big corporations who, under previous Labor and Liberal governments, have accrued enormous power and are using that power right now to drive up prices—particularly Coles and Woolworths—and screw over ordinary Australians. They are Chevron, Exxon Mobil, big oil and gas corporations, Coles and Woolworths and the big banks. Just last year Commonwealth Bank recorded a record $10 billion profit. Across the board big corporations are screwing over mortgage holders, people trying to go to the supermarkets, renters and people trying to make ends meet, but at the same time those big corporations are making massive profits.

Let's be clear about the human consequences of this. I remember chatting to a renter who was having to cut back on meals for herself just so she could afford her baby's nappy rash cream. I have been chatting to pensioners having to make tough choices and single mums skipping meals so their kids can afford to eat. This should not happen in a wealthy country like Australia. It is particularly deeply frustrating when we know, at the same time, that the government has the power to tackle this.

The Prime Minister made these absurd comparisons to the Soviet Union when the Greens proposed rules and laws that exist in the United States. I would be surprised if anyone was going to make a comparison between the United States and the Soviet Union. It would be laughable if the consequences were not so serious. Time and again the government and the Prime Minister seem more interested in making silly, stupid jokes than in treating their roles with the seriousness with which they should treat them and recognising that they are in government. How is it that they can continue to pretend they don't have the power to do these things? All of a sudden they're the government and they are the ones with the power, but they keep pretending all they can do is say nice words and tell people they feel their pain. It is all hypocritical and all useless if they don't take action to help people.

Today we are suspending standing orders because there is an urgent crisis going on right now, and there are practical things the government could do to take on the power of Coles and Woolworths. The fundamental choice this Labor government has to make is whether it chooses ordinary Australians doing it tough or the massive supermarkets, the Coles and the Woolworths, screwing over ordinary Australians.

Here are the three things you could do right now: support the Greens bill in the Senate to allow the government and the ACCC to break up the market share of Coles and Woolworths, make price gouging illegal, and give the ACCC the power to take Coles and Woolworths to court where they are caught price gouging ordinary Australians. Introduce a super profits tax on Coles, Woolworths and all the other big corporations screwing over ordinary people. Raise billions of dollars and use that to help ordinary Australians doing it tough.

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