Labor pledges ban on supermarkets price-gouging
Anthony Albanese has vowed to ban supermarket price gouging if Labor is re-elected, in the first major promise of the federal election campaign.
Albanese will on Sunday promise to make excessive pricing illegal andfix a gap in the nation’s competition and consumer protection framework.
Labor would first implement recommendations from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) supermarket inquiry report to improve transparency about prices, promotions, and loyalty programs.
A task force would be set up to advise on introducing an excessive-pricing regime for supermarkets to be policed by the consumer watchdog.
The group would include Treasury, the ACCC and other experts who would consult and report to the federal government within six months.
“Australian families deserve a fair price at the checkout and Australian farmers deserve a fair price for their goods,” Albanese said.
The prime minister and Coalition leader Peter Dutton kicked off the first day of campaigning on Saturday in Brisbane, with both focusing on the cost of living.
Anthony Albanese ended the first full day of campaigning in Bega, NSW. Photo: AAP
Albanese made his first stop of the five-week race at a medical centre in Murrumba Downs in Dutton’s marginal seat of Dickson, where he spruiked Labor’s promise to increase Medicare funding.
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His next stop was Bundaberg, where he visited the Bundaberg Barrel with Industry Minister Ed Husic to promote his government’s campaign for Australians to buy locally made products.
The prime minister later visited the NSW seat of Eden-Monaro to make a community funding announcement in Bega.
The Opposition leader was off to a rocky start on Saturday, with two events interrupted by climate activists chastising him about his gas and nuclear policies before being forcibly removed.
At the centre of his cost-of-living pitch is cheaper electricity bills through a proposal to pump more gas into the energy grid.
But despite promising prices would ease by the end of 2025, Dutton remains coy on how much or what modelling backs his claim.
Although he pledged to release modelling before polling day that he said showed prices would decrease under his plan.
Dutton is looking to get back on track on Sunday as he tries to appeal to small business owners and people in outer suburbs struggling to make ends meet.
His camp started Sunday in Brisbane as the Coalition works to win back inner-city seats from the Greens and go on the attack in the outer suburbs where the cost of living is biting harder.
Coles and Woolworths have rejected claims of price-gouging, and have argued their margins are comparable to their peers in countries including Canada, the UK and the US.
Laws to protect customers from companies engaging in the practice already exist in the UK, European Union, and dozens of states in the US.
With cost of living being the most pressing issue for voters, Labor is spruiking measures including cheaper medicines and proposed tax cuts.
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Treasurer Jim Chalmers said Labor was making sure Australians were not being treated like mugs.
“We’re delivering a better deal for families at the checkout and a better deal for farmers at the farm gate,” he said.
“Our plan helps deliver more competition, fairer prices and better deals for Australians.”
Assistant Minister for Competition Andrew Leigh said when competition was weak, prices went up.
Libs home in on small business
Dutton’s focused on businesses at two of three campaign events around Brisbane on Saturday.
The first at the XXXX brewery and the second at a supporters’ lunch where he chastised the level of insolvencies under Labor.
“There is a sliding door for Australians as they head to the polls,” he said.
“It’s a choice for Australia to decide who can deliver a sustainable energy system that will see prices come down.”
Peter Dutton visited the XXXX brewery in Brisbane. Photo: AAP
His main attack stems from a Labor promise at the 2022 election that power bills would come down $275 if elected.
A dramatic increase in some power bills forced the government to put in place two rounds of rebates to cauterise the hikes.
Labor argues international factors outside its control such as the war in Ukraine and a volatile global economy fuelled inflation and power prices.
It has also pointed to its plan to supercharge renewable energy investment in measures such as wind and solar, which Australia has in abundance, to bring down power bills as well as carbon emissions.
But Dutton remains locked in on the broken promise to differentiate energy policies.
“How could you believe anything the prime minister or the treasurer says in this election campaign?” he said.
