Greens pitch commission to investigate price gouging
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The news: The federal Greens have launched a plan to establish a prices commission to work alongside the consumer watchdog in cracking down on price gouging.
The prices commission would be a separate Commonwealth entity similar in size and structure to the Productivity Commission and would pass along referrals to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for investigation.
The Greens also want new price gouging and divestiture powers introduced that would then be enforced by the ACCC and the courts.
The numbers: The party's plan would also see the ACCC bolstered with an additional 20 full-time jobs.
The proposal would decrease the fiscal and underlying cash balances by $152.7 million over the 2024-25 budget forward estimates, according to Parliamentary Budget Office modelling, due to the increased departmental costs. This assumes that recruiting and onboarding costs would be absorbed by the ACCC and that salaries are similar to those within the Productivity Commission. The figure does not include any fines from enforcement action that could offset the cost.
The context: The federal government was delivered the final report into the ACCC's recent supermarkets inquiry on 28 February. It has yet to make the document public.
The interim report, released in August 2024, described a highly concentrated supermarket sector dominated by Coles and Woolworths. It indicated there were barriers from planning and zoning laws and was canvassing claims of land banking of retail sites. Concerns were also raised about the imbalance of powers from suppliers of fruit and vegetables.
What they said: Greens leader Adam Bandt said the party would use its position to “make price gouging illegal”, should Labor form a minority government.
“In a wealthy country like ours everyone should be able to afford the basics, but people are getting smashed at the checkout,” he said.
Greens economic justice spokesman Nick McKim said the plan would deliver lower food and grocery prices.
These supermarket giants have been making massive profits, ripping off their workers, and making you pay more. We need to ban the anti-competitive schemes that have allowed them to get so big and kill off the competition,” he said.
“Anger is growing at the massive corporations who are price gouging and pushing up the price of living.
“The competition watchdog is suing Coles and Woolworths over dodgy deals that allegedly didn’t exist, workers are pushing back against unfair pay and conditions, and farmers are calling out unfair returns.”
The source: Greens media release
