Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I will be brief. I was a part of this inquiry as a member of the committee. I will not cover the ground that some of my colleagues have raised but I think it is important that the Auditor-General does look at the tender process. I was concerned that Informed Sources, who have a track record of providing robust and independent advice and monitoring of prices to both the former government and this government, were not adequately considered for the tender even though their tender process was some $2½ million dollars cheaper than the Retail*Facts tender.

I think there was a real issue there and the answers given by the ACCC pointed to a real concern about the tender process. I accept that the ACCC officials did their best to answer those questions, but they conceded that there was no problem with Informed Sources. They had a perfect track record in dealing with these sorts of issues and they had the capacity to deal with them. They were never let down previously by Informed Sources and yet for some reason they felt that they could not do it or could not train people up in time. That really concerned me. Also, the issue of a potential conflict of interest for Retail*Facts is very concerning. I think it is important that the Auditor-General does look at this in the context of whether we can improve tender processes and ensure a greater degree of transparency.

I thought GROCERYchoice was an idea worth having and giving a go. I think the government’s intentions were not bad in having greater price transparency, but I think it is fair to say that the Choice organisation was torpedoed by a lack of cooperation by Woolworths and Coles and that that indicates a very unhealthy level of market concentration in this country by the big two supermarket chains. That is something that we need to address both in terms of geographic price discrimination and other reforms.

Ultimately, we will need to look very closely at the issue of divestiture of the retail concentration that Coles and Woolworths have in this country, because it is at an unprecedented level of concentration in the marketplace. No other country in the OECD—I think no other country in the world apart from a completely controlled economy, such as North Korea’s—would have that level of concentration in the marketplace. They are the sorts of things that need to be addressed. The fact that GROCERYchoice was needed in the first place points to that concentration. That it did not work, again, points to the level of power of Coles and Woolworths and it also points to some fundamental mistakes that were made in the process. That is why I think we should learn from what happened here. It will be for the benefit of taxpayers and ultimately for consumers if we can have a great degree of price transparency in the grocery market.