Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I look forward to making my contribution to Senator McKim's private senator's bill, the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Divestiture Powers) Bill 2024. I want to thank Senator McKim for giving us the opportunity to set up the inquiry. There are a lot of things going on, as people know, and I'm enjoying working alongside Senator McKim. I might not agree with everything he's just said, but it has opened up avenues to the public that—and I'm not trying to be a smarty—I'm well aware of after almost 19 years on the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Committee.

I just want to go a little bit further into what's going on out there. It's a well-known fact—and I'm in Hansard many times, given my trucking background, having a crack at Coles and Woolies—that they treat the road transport industry as free storage while our truckies, particularly interstaters, sit in queues for two, three, four or five hours waiting to get unloaded. So, no, there's no argument there. The inquiry has done, I think, about three hearings now—we've been in Orange and Hobart, and we did one in Melbourne—and Senator McKim touched on the fact that we've still got a fair bit of work to do. When there is an inquiry going on into supermarket pricing, the first thing I hear when I talk to West Aussies—and I know it myself—is that, when you walk out of Coles and Woolies with two bags and there's 150 bucks gone, it doesn't take long to think, 'Where the hell did that go?' I'll be the first one to say there have been supply chain squeezes and challenges. We know that. But we know some of the products in these supermarkets—and I will say this: with the greatest of respect, $35 for a cut of meat, and it's not a good cut of meat. Crikey! There's some pretty expensive stuff. We've seen fruit and veggies go up and down, and we've heard all sorts of supply-chain reasons why, such as floods. I get all that; it happens every year. Coming from WA and running trucks going through the north, I know we have these challenges. And we know we have invasive pests. We've got to worry about all this sort of stuff; I've got all that.

What the committee has seen is not an eye-opener to me. I'm pretty sure it'd be an eye-opener to a few other people. But I've been clearly saying this: where I live in Western Australia, down Fremantle way, there are many choices within my area. I have a Coles, a Woolies, three IGAs and an Aldi, so we have choice. I know the argument comes out that there's no choice and no competition. I can't speak for the eastern states, although I know that at my little patch here in Kingston, where I live when I'm in Canberra, I can go to Coles or Supabarn. I've got to tell you that the private marketeer Supabarn has a very nice shop. I say this, and I will stand to be corrected: on a lot of the items on the shelves—we know these supermarkets stock up to 6,000 items—there is competition for us that live in the cities and in the suburbs but not so much for those in the regions or rurally; I get that. We have that choice. I'll go back to my patch, where I can go to Aldi, Woolworths, Coles or the three IGAs. The competition is there. We've got to think about this.

I'll go back to what we've uncovered, which has been no surprise to us on the rural and regional affairs committee. As Coles and Woolies get battered and bombarded, what has come out of this is the issue for farmers in the horticultural and agricultural industries, and for those working in the fishing industry. It's a well-known fact in this nation that 70 per cent of our seafood is exported—we all know that—and 70 per cent is imported. We know that. We know it's the same for fresh fruit, but I can't remember the exact figures. What's happening here is that every single sector of the agriculture industry feels that they're getting absolutely squeezed. They've come up, but a lot of them won't say it; they rely on the likes of their farming organisations.

We hear all the stories, and Senator McKim mentioned one of them. Whether they're growing cherries, cucumbers or lettuce—it doesn't matter what it is—they say they are getting belted around by Coles. They are price takers—we know that—like the trucking industry. The growers are at the bottom of the supply chain when it comes to dollars. They have products that have use-by dates, so it's not as though they can put them in cold storage for six months and then wheel them out. They get the living daylights screwed out of them by the supermarkets. I'm not running a protection racket for Aldi or Costco, IGA or anything else; I reckon they're all the same. That's the evidence we've been taking. We all say, 'Oh, those poor farmers,' and we absolutely mean that. We've heard farmers say that, if a carrot has two prongs, it goes into the bin. It's good quality food. There's nothing wrong with it, but it won't make it to the supermarket shelves. If a cucumber has a little kink or an elbow, it goes to the bin. We've got a cost-of-living problem here, and we are seeing all of this food being thrown out; you hear about this.

I was leading the charge on the questioning—I know it wasn't just me—and my favourite line was, 'Do you get cost recovery?' There weren't many that stood up and said they got cost recovery. I think there were only one or two that were still supplying Coles or Woolies, and they were vocal. The rest—I won't use my normal language here—were frightened of opening their mouths. They'd been absolutely terrorised. It's not obvious, but what we've heard is that they'll get pushed to the back of the queue or the big supermarkets won't buy from them.

I want everyone out there to think about this, because there is a belief that supermarket prices will tumble if we have an inquiry. We know that is not going to happen. We absolutely believe in competition on this side, and we believe that competition is the best thing that could happen. We don't agree with the divestiture of powers—and Senator McKim has heard me say this—because I've done extensive work in America with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. They have divestiture. They have six or seven big brands, and they've got that gorilla Walmart. I have to tell you, and I'm going to look to you for your support here, Senator Farrell: these monsters and gorillas—the supermarket chains in America—are not great employers. They are not fantastic supporters of their employees. Am I right, Senator Farrell? He's quietly trying to nod. I'll tell you: they're not. So we look at Coles and we look at Woolies. There are 150,000 people employed there. But we're going down this track.

This is what I believe we should be saying: 'Crikey! Our farmers, food producers and processors need to be able to get cost recovery.' I don't think anyone in Australia would ever expect anyone to work under—well, there may be some people; I have some arguments in here with the opposite side. Everyone should be able to get cost recovery. Think about this: what we should be saying is that we've got to get the prices up for the farmers and the food producers. Whether they come out of the profits of Woolies, Coles, IGA or anyone else, is neither here nor there, although that's where they should come from if the profits are that large. Now, help me out, everyone. While we're out there battering Coles and Woolies—we're not talking about IGA, Costco or Aldi, but we know they're dearer than Coles and Woolies—I don't know where this one's going to end up.

I would challenge anyone in this place to tell me that the National Farmers Federation—and this'll raise a few eyebrows—have done the right thing by protecting their members. The National Farmers Federation came to our inquiry. They are the be all and end all of the farming and agricultural industry, and how they love their members! They are the same people who joined hands with the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, COSBOA, the Australian Industry Group—and those poor, struggling miners. I forgot about the Minerals Council of Australia. The National Farmers Federation hooked arms with them and put members' money into a $24 million campaign to thwart transport reform in this nation. I've know because I've been on this journey for a long time. I've always said to the farmers: 'You should stand up like we're doing with the transport industry. Stand up and get paid properly. Get cost recovery. Be viable, be safe, be sustainable and, God help us, you might get a little bit of profit.' So the National Farmers Federation, for me, hold absolutely not once skerrick of decency about them. They come to our meetings and talk about the poor farmers. When I ask them, 'Why did you think it was a good idea to throw money at stopping transport reform?' they have nothing to say. I know there'll be a flurry of letters coming to say they want to meet with me. I don't want to meet with the National Farmers Federation.

What we are saying very clearly is that every horticulture and agriculture industry in this nation is struggling financially. I look across, and there are some really good people on that side of the building who come in here with dirt under their fingernails.