Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised Sunday to outlaw supermarket price gouging with the threat of heavy fines, ahead of a tightly fought May 3 general election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The supermarket crackdown and a surprise income tax cut are among a string of government proposals to ease the cost of living, which voters consistently cite as a top concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Surveys show the centre-left government and conservative opposition running neck-and-neck in the election race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Australians deserve a fair go at the checkout. We will hold the big supermarket chains to account,” Albanese told reporters, promising to introduce legislation this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Price gouging is when supermarkets are taking the piss,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asked how abuses would be addressed, he promised “heavy fines to make sure that they know that if they’re ripping people off, then they’re in the gun to pay a heavy penalty.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government would set up a task force with representatives from the Treasury, competition regulators and consumer groups to decide on action, Albanese said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Australia was looking at overseas examples of regulating unfair pricing, he said, including in Britain and the European Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Australia has one of the most concentrated grocery sectors in the world, with big players Coles and Woolworths enjoying considerable power to set prices for consumers and suppliers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Competition regulators said in a report this month that the two companies enjoyed growing profit margins and had “limited incentive to compete vigorously with each other on price”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
James Paterson, senior member of the main opposition Liberal Party, said the prime minister had failed to define price gouging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We are very happy to make price gouging illegal,” the senator said in an interview with public broadcaster ABC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the opposition also planned to introduce targeted divestment powers, which could be used as a “last resort” if supermarkets abused their market power, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has proposed cost-of-living measures including a one-year cut to gasoline tax, and a scheme to rein in gas prices by obliging producers to keep a share of output for the domestic market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Annual consumer price inflation was 2.4 percent in the final quarter of 2024, after peaking at 7.8 percent in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A YouGov survey released Sunday put support for the ruling Labor Party and conservative opposition coalition level, with Labor at 50.2 percent and the coalition at 49.8 percent on a two-party preferred basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That would translate into a hung parliament with Labor one seat short of a majority, it said, putting the government in a “strong” position to remain in power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised Sunday to outlaw supermarket price gouging with the threat of heavy fines, ahead of a tightly fought May 3 general election. The supermarket crackdown and a surprise income tax cut are among a string of government proposals to ease the cost of living, which voters consistently cite as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":255,"featured_media":52488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,108,12054],"tags":[12033,13004,8074,127,12320,11939,11962,13354,13353],"class_list":["post-81146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-business","category-politics","tag-albanese-2","tag-anthony-2","tag-australia-3","tag-australie","tag-economy-2","tag-election-4","tag-inflation-2","tag-prices","tag-supermaket"],"yoast_head":"\n