Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

In large parts of the Australian economy at the moment corporations have got too much power, and that is resulting in bad outcomes for our environment, for nature and for the planet's climate. But it's also resulting in bad outcomes for the Australian people. Our economy in this country is dominated by large corporations who have too much market power. Nowhere is that more obvious than in the supermarket sector. Australia needs law reform in this area. We need divestiture laws in Australia which would create the powers to break up the supermarket duopoly.

We are seeing Coles and Woolworths ruthlessly use their market power—market domination—to crush farmers, to exploit workers and to price-gouge shoppers in this country. Millions of Australians are struggling to make ends meet at the moment. We've all been there; you arrive at the supermarket checkout and you simply cannot believe the cost of what you have taken off the shelf and put into your trolley. It is time that the Australian people and their interests took precedence and priority over the interests of the supermarket corporations.

Coles and Woolworths are raking in billions of dollars in profits, our farmers are being crushed, workers in the supermarkets are being done over and customers are being price-gouged. The Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia accepted recently that some corporations are using the cover of high inflation to raise their prices over and above what they need to in response to increases in their input costs. The head of the ACCC accepts the proposition that if we had divestiture powers in Australia food and grocery prices would be lower than they otherwise would be. And who is standing in the way of divestiture powers in Australia? The Australian Labor Party and the Prime Minister, Mr Albanese.

They are very happy to go to the supermarkets and be photographed in Coles safety vests, but they are not prepared to stand up to Coles or Woolworths and take the side of the Australian people and Australian shoppers. Those political donations from Coles and Woolworths sure are paying off in spades. Minor investment into the Labor Party equals major political outcomes, like the Prime Minister refusing to support divestiture laws in Australia. It is time Mr Albanese made a choice to stand with the Australian people, not stand with the giant supermarket corporations.

We need far stronger merger laws in Australia, but we also need divestiture powers. Mr Albanese suggests these are Soviet style powers. Perhaps he is not aware that that well-known command-and-control economy, the United States of America, has had divestiture powers in the form of antitrust laws since the 1890s. Perhaps Mr Albanese doesn't know that the United Kingdom has divestiture powers. Perhaps Mr Albanese doesn't know that there are multiple countries in Europe right now using divestiture powers to insert more competition into their supermarket sectors to bring down the prices of food and groceries.

Mr Albanese should stop siding with his political donors, the giant supermarket corporations of Coles and Woolworths, and start siding with the Australian people, millions of whom are struggling to make ends meet. We have had horror stories told to the Senate Select Committee on Supermarket Prices—stories of single mothers going without meals so they could feed their kids and people in tears describing how their mothers are skipping meals because they just cannot afford to buy food. It is time for Mr Albanese to take the side of the Australian people and join with the Australian Greens to support the creation of divestiture powers to break up the supermarket duopoly.