Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

Coles and Woolworths have been making billions in profits by price gouging in a cost-of-living crisis. For far too long, the big supermarkets have taken advantage of the grossly excessive market power they've been allowed to accumulate under successive Labor and Liberal governments. This has allowed them to dictate prices and to set terms, raking in billions in excess profits at the expense of suppliers and consumers.

The Greens established the Senate Select Committee on Supermarket Prices because, unlike Labor, we are absolutely focused on bringing food and grocery prices down. The committee heard from people about skipping meals, dumpster diving and eating unhealthy foods just to get by. It heard from farmers who are being screwed over, in some cases being paid what they were 15 years ago. The message was clear: Coles and Woolworths have exploited their massive, unchallenged market power to profiteer at the expense of the health and wellbeing of millions of Australians.

The committee has recommended that price gouging be made illegal, which would mean that corporations could no longer arbitrarily increase prices without facing consequences from the courts. The committee has also recommended divestiture powers for the supermarket sector, which would give the Federal Court the power to break up corporations when they abuse their market power or act unconscionably. Without the ability to break up the duopoly, our market will remain skewed toward the interests of a few powerful players, and nothing will change.

A responsible government would not allow the accumulation of massive corporate profits to take precedence over the interests of the Australian people, but, as Australians now understand, this is not a responsible government. A responsible government would not brag about banking a $9 billion surplus while three million Australians, including one in six children, live in poverty in this country. A responsible government would not tinker around the edges of the welfare system while income support and pension payments are below the poverty line, ignoring the recommendations of its own committee. A responsible government wouldn't be wasting nearly $400 billion on submarines while public schools and the public health system teeter on the brink. And a responsible government wouldn't spend $30 billion a year on handouts to property speculators while public housing supply dwindles and millions of people continue to remain in housing stress. A responsible government wouldn't be giving CEOs, billionaires and politicians a $4,500-a-year tax cut while 52,000 women facing domestic violence are turned away from legal services every year. If Labor really was a responsible government, it would stop supermarket corporations ruthlessly using their market power to gouge prices while raking in billions of dollars in profits.

There is a Greens bill in the parliament right now which would create divestiture powers and sap these rapacious corporations of their unchecked power. The only thing standing in the way of that bill is the Labor Party.