Supermarkets would be prohibited and faced with strong fines for the increase in prices under a new promise of labor government elections.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has promised to make the excessive price illegal if he re -elected for a second term.
“We will enter the legislation that makes the price price illegal for the end of this year,” said ABC privileged information program on Sunday morning.
“What we want to make sure is that they (supermarkets) know that they are being observed. They know that the government is prepared to take strong measures and take energetic measures.”
Later, the prime minister said the supermarkets are “taking the urine of Australian consumers.”
So what promises Albanese and the price of prices is happening? This is what you need to know.
What has Albanese promised in the increase in supermarket prices?
Albanese said that if the Labor wins the federal elections of May 3, the supermarkets that are like price anger would receive “strong fines.”
“The Australians deserve a fair opportunity in the payment, and my government will have to tell the large supermarket chains,” he said.
The Minister of Finance, Katy Gallagher, added during a Canberra press conference that the new plans aim to combat the growing pressures of the cost of living.
“The government of Anthony Albanese focuses on responding to those costs of cost of living. We have heard that Australians are under pressure.
“We know that prices in the supermarket have budgets of the homes achieved, and that is why this government, during the last three years, has focused on doing what we can to remove the pressure from households without adding to inflation.”
Anthony Albanese and the Minister of Finance, Katy Gallagher, speaking with journalists in Canberra. Fountain: AAPA / Lukas Coch
The laws to protect customers from companies that participate in the price break already exist in the United Kingdom, the European Union and dozens of states in the United States.
The workforce would implement the recommendations of the Research Research Report of the Competition and the Australian Consumer Commission (ACCC) to improve transparency on prices, promotions and loyalty programs.
A working group would be established to advise on the introduction of an excessive price regime for supermarkets to be monitored by the consumer guard dog.
The group would include the Treasury, the ACCC and other experts that would consult and inform the Federal Government in six months.
Are the big supermarkets that wearing up the price? It is complicated
The Australian consumer control agency published its final report after a one -year -old supermarket investigation, finding the domain of Woolworths and Colles had an “oligopolistic” effect on the industry in general.
But the ACCC resisted the calls to be granted powers to break the two major corporations, saying that there was no “silver bullet” to fix the supermarket sector.
They also said it was “very difficult” to know if the price filling was really happening in supermarkets.
“We don’t get to that [price gouging] The conclusion, and part of the reason is the complexity of making when you observe the range of products and the different margins they have, and the fact that prices change almost weekly, “said Vice President of ACCC, Mick Keogh.
“It is very difficult to get to the bottom of that. The profitability figures give it a very wide image of what is happening, but the problem of pricing is not one that we could participate too closely.”
The ACCC found that between 2018 and the end of 2021, the prices of the edibles increased largely in line with the salaries, but at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, the prices of the edibles increased more than double the salary growth rate.
The profits of supermarkets have increased at that time, but the main companies claim that it is not a “dramatic” increase.
The report also did not seek to determine if the prices of the profit margins in the large supermarkets were “excessive”, since ACCC regulates the behavior of the supermarket, and administering a business with profits is not illegal.
COLES, Woolworths reject Albanese’s proposal
On Sunday, Colles, Woolworths and Peak Retail Body, the Association of Australian retailers (ARA) responded to the prime minister who announced plans to ban pricefill.
A spokesman for Colles rejected the claims that the supermarket giant dedicated himself to price filling and argued that his margins are comparable to his companions in countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
“Despite a 12 -month investigation in supermarkets, or the Government or the ACCC found evidence of pricing,” they said in a statement to SBS News.
“What is needed are measures that address real factors that drive the highest prices of groceries, which are costs to increase energy, fuel, labor, insurance, production, load and distribution.”
In a separate statement, Woolworths echoed the comment of choles that the final report of the ACCC did not find evidence of pricing, and said that he had taken measures to meet many of the ACCC recommendations.
The Director of Affairs of the ARA industry, Fleur Brown, said in a similar way that repeated consultations “have not been able to find any evidence of rupture of supermarket prices.”
“The FCC findings clearly indicate that the inflation of the groceries has been high for the cost of wages, energy and fuel,” he said.
“However, instead of listening to how the government will address these problems, which will significantly affect all Australian retailers and consumers, unfortunately we see more deviation funded by taxpayers.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, spoke in Austral BrickWorks in Sydney the second day of the campaign. Fountain: AAPA / Mick Tsiks
What promises the coalition in supermarkets?
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, said Albanese could not “face supermarkets.”
“I would say that the prime minister is weak as water, he would really.
“We have told supermarkets, you are to Australian consumers, and continue to believe that your market participation gives you power in the market that should be exploited, I will act as Prime Minister and this prime minister has shown that it will not.”
Dutton says that the policy of the coalition is the divestment, a supermarket commissioner and “significant fines that begin at $ 10 million.”
“Prices are in supermarkets at this time due to Anthony Albanese. That is the predominant reason.”
What about the Greens?
At the beginning of March, the Greens announced that a priority for their party would be to make the price illegal in the middle of this year.
Its proposal would create a ‘pricing commission’ to monitor supermarkets for price filling, and corporations that increased prices are subject to massive fines or divestments. That commission would start operating in July.
Last year, the greens introduced a bill to prohibit the breaking of supermarket prices, which was voted against Labor and Liberals.
On Sunday, the leader of the Greens, Adam Bandt, the credit was attributed to inspire the proposal of work, saying in X: “After adopting most of our plan to see the GP for free, work has now followed the plan of the Greens to make the price of supermarkets illuminate illegal.”
The senator of the Greens Nick McKim, the spokesman for the economic justice of the party, added: “While Albanese is navigating the Green website in search of policy ideas, it must also copy and paste our plan for dental in Medicare and end the felling of native forests.”
Bandt reiterated that policies should go one step beyond fines, and that supermarket companies that abuse their market power should face the perspective of divestment and face serious sanctions.
“These supermarkets are winning billions of profits. Fines must be high to make sure supermarkets listen,” he said.
“But even more than that, what the greens want to see is that supermarkets know that they could also break if they continue to abuse buyers and abuse their market power, that is where the penalty should be.”
Will a price break prohibition make the groceries cheaper?
While there is hope that a mission to eliminate price filling can lead to better edible prices, not everyone is convinced.
“The widely popular narrative of ‘eliminating price filling’ by dragging the executive directors of supermarkets to public audiences and threatening them over jail time could have inferred such consultations would lead to the lowest food prices,” Gary Mortimer, professor of marketing and consumer behavior at the University of Technology in Queensland, in the conversation at the beginning of this month.
“In isolation, they have not done so.”
While supermarkets face scrutiny, it is not clear if consumers will feel the difference in payment.
With reports by Australian Associated Press.
