Sally Sitou (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia has one of the most concentrated grocery markets in the world. The duopoly of Coles and Woolworths account for 70 per cent of all supermarket sales in Australia, and Australian consumers and producers know that they have got a bad deal.

The move by the ACCC to launch legal proceedings against both Coles and Woolworths alleging breaches of the Consumer Law paints a picture of some of the dodgy practices that the supermarket duopoly may have used. People feel angry and I think they have every right to. If these allegations are true, it is incredibly disappointing to see how Coles and Woolworths have conned consumers into thinking that items were on sale when they were not. At the same time as they have been making consumers pay more, they have driven down prices for Australian producers. The duopoly of Coles and Woolworths is not a recent phenomenon. They have had significant market share now for decades. While the coalition were in government for almost a decade, they did little to alleviate this duopoly squeeze on households and producers. But what are we doing about it?

The Albanese Labor government is doing something to stop the squeeze on Australian consumers and producers. We have released draft new legislation to tighten regulations and a draft mandatory code of conduct, essentially the rulebooks by which these supermarkets must play by. What we inherited from the former government was a toothless and ineffective voluntary code of conduct. Under the voluntary code, supermarkets were able to appoint their own arbiters, so you question their independence. Supermarkets could opt out of provisions of the code by overwriting them in their grocery supply agreements. There was very little recourse for retributive actions taken by supermarkets against producers, so you could imagine if you were growing apples in Bilpin New South Wales and one of the major supermarkets breached the voluntary code of conduct, it would be very unlikely that you would make a complaint, because who else would you be able to sell your apples to? We know that this voluntary code of conduct was ineffective because there were only five complaints made by suppliers in four years from 2021 until 2024.

However, the mandatory code of conduct that we are proposing will be binding on all supermarkets with annual revenues exceeding $5 billion, so that will include Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and Metcash. There will be a minimum standard that cannot be contracted out in grocery supply agreements. It will contain—and this is an important point—provisions to guard against retribution against suppliers. So if you are an Australian producer getting a bad deal, you can make a complaint and know that the supermarkets will not be able to retaliate. There will be a direct and confidential complaint mechanism to the ACCC and, importantly, strong financial penalties. Under the voluntary code it was penalties in the thousands, little more than a slap on the wrist. What we are proposing is penalties of $10 million per incident or 10 per cent of turnover.

We are also implementing the recommendations of the review of the food and grocery code of conduct. We have funded Choice to monitor grocery prices and have directed the ACCC to conduct a wide-ranging inquiry into the supermarket sector. So the contrast is clear: while the coalition did nothing for nine years, they are now dramatically over-correcting, with a senior coalition member, Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie, saying that supermarkets should be forced to divest themselves, which would only make the problem worse. If one supermarket was forced to divest, the only likely buyer in the market would be the other major supermarket, therefore providing a greater concentration of market power here. It is a populist notion that will make the situation worse. Supermarkets need to do the right thing by Australians, and the Albanese government is committed to improving the food and grocery sector so it works for families and farmers.

While the coalition have sat on their hands about trying to alleviate the cost of living for my constituents, both the Greens and the coalition are now actively preventing the Labor government from getting 40,000 more people into homes during a housing crisis under our proposed shared equity scheme. Today, the Albanese government brought back into parliament our bill to make it easier for low- and middle-income Aussies to buy their own home. Labor has a simple belief that ordinary Australians should be able to own their own homes. The coalition, on the other hand, doesn't see a role for government in helping Australians into homes. They would rather stay at arm's length and wait for an entirely market based solution to materialise.

The Greens, on the other hand, seem to oppose people owning homes altogether, and they appear to want to build homes everywhere except in their own electorates, with Greens members at the council, state and federal levels coming out in vocal opposition to new homes being built in their local areas. The Greens are the ultimate NIMBYs. They are making a lot of noise about making homes more affordable, but it all adds up to a lot of nothing, because, for the Greens, the grievance of nothing is always better than the practical solution of something.

The Help to Buy scheme isn't everything, it's not going to solve the housing crisis, but it is a part of the solution. We've had a number of attempts to reach agreement with the coalition and the Greens to help people who need it the most, but the truth is the Greens, in particular, don't want to see this bill pass parliament. Every time they've had a chance to help renters or potential buyers, they have rejected it. They would prefer to have a fight because it suits them politically.

My parents were able to buy a home within five years of arriving in this country. They live in that same house today, and it was the foundation that allowed my family to thrive here. That foundation ought to be made available to all Australians, but, unfortunately, it is not. It is getting harder for so many to put a roof over their heads. I'm proud of the work the Albanese Labor government has done to increase housing supply. In the last budget alone, we provided more funding to build homes than the coalition government did in their entire nine years in power. The contrast there could not be more stark. We provided more funding in the last budget alone than the coalition were able to do in their entire nine years in power.

Housing affordability is at a genuine crisis point, and we must find solutions to ensure all Australians have a place to call home. We should support planning reforms and strengthening the rights of renters, but the real answer to improving housing affordability is supply. Building more homes of any type, market or non-market, the government stepping in to build homes and the private sector stepping into built homes—it should all be part of the mix, so it is incredibly frustrating when the Greens, the Liberals and the Nats join up in the Senate to block the legislation we've put forward to reduce the cost of housing for our most vulnerable homeowners. My message to the Liberals, the Nats and the Greens is to back the Help to Buy Bill, because 40,000 Australians can't afford to wait while you play politics with their future.