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

Woolworths and Coles had 51 per cent of the market in 1991. By the year 2000, 10 years later, they had 70 per cent of the market. It was 68 per cent if you listen to the government and 72 per cent if you listen to ANOP's world grocery figures. So it was definitely 70 per cent. It went from 51 per cent to 70 per cent. No-one would deny that their market share has gone up from that 70 per cent.

When they did the report on Woolworths and Coles—it was the 14th report on Woolworths and Coles. They do one every year, on average. There have been 15 reports on Woolworths and Coles in 15 years, but during the latest one, two blokes got dressed up in pig suits, and it terrified them! Within three or four hours, 403 items in Woolworths had been pulled down, and, that night, the CEO was sacked. Every political party in this place—all seven of them—is moving legislation because two blokes got dressed up in a pig suit. It's a pity that we didn't do it sooner.

I'm sick of bringing fruit in here all the time and giving the prices, but it just so happened that we had an avocado in our office, so I picked up the avocado. The farm gate price is $3.The supermarket price is $8.50. That's nearly 300 per cent higher. I've spoken about potatoes many times in this place. The farmer gets 99c, and they're $3.90 at Woolworths. How much longer do you accept this? No country on Earth—England is actually the worst, and the big six have only 36 per cent of the market. Here, the big two most certainly have 80 per cent—and I'd say it's closer now to 90 per cent—of the market. Remember ,the market they don't have are tiny little towns. They still make up about 10 per cent of Australia's population, but no one would put a supermarket there, so they're not interested. But how much longer can this go on for?

The week after the pig stunt, seven political parties said they were moving legislation. Here comes the legislation again. It doesn't reduce their market share. The legislation from the honourable member from Hobart and me reduces their market share by law over five years to 20 per cent of the market. At present, they have over 40 per cent each. That would be 20 per cent each. Foreign corporations have only five per cent. Aldi can return themselves to Europe, where they came from, as far as I'm concerned. But that's the legislation. There's no easy way to do this. You either do it or you just keep fooling around and make the people more and more angry with you, because they know all you're doing is politics. You're in big trouble. The pig suit's got you in big trouble. All of Australia is screaming for your throat, so what you do is run along. You've already had your 15th inquiry in 15 years. They got a bit scared, so they came out a bit brutal. The inquiry was as well, which was a bit different for an inquiry.

As Winston Churchill said, 'If you absolutely won't and must not do it, then, of course, you must have an inquiry.' The wider the terms of reference, of course, the less likely it is to hit any target. That's what we're watching here once again. I applaud the government for putting a bit of a scare up them, but you will not do the thing that is required to be done. I don't know about other people, but I used to take 60 bucks down to the supermarket when my wife was away and I was fending for myself. Now I take 160 bucks down. I just can't believe it. Even the statistics would indicate the horrific markup that exists in Australia. They are not showing profits, I might add. The shareholders are not getting a benefit from this, because the profits are going towards maintaining a monopoly of two in the marketplace. That is where the profits are going. Of course, the corporates are paying themselves $13 million a year. (Time expired)

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