ANTHONY ALBANESE MP
PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA

JIM CHALMERS MP
TREASURER

Today the Albanese Labor Government is taking decisive action to help consumers get fairer prices at the supermarket checkout, in stores and online.

Misconduct in the supermarket and retail sector is unfair, unacceptable and makes cost-of-living pressures worse for Australians.

We don’t want to see ordinary Australians, families and pensioners being taken for a ride by the supermarkets, and we’re taking steps to make sure they get a fair go at the checkout.

The Government is boosting funding to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) so it can undertake a crackdown on misleading and deceptive pricing practices and unconscionable conduct in the supermarket and retail sector.

Funding of around $30 million will help the ACCC conduct more investigations and enforcement in the supermarket and retail sectors.

This will enhance the regulator’s ability to proactively monitor behaviour and investigate pricing practices where there are concerns about supermarkets and retailers falsely justifying higher prices.

This follows last week’s announcement that the ACCC is taking legal action against Coles and Woolworths for allegedly misleading customers through discount pricing claims on hundreds of everyday products.

In addition to this crackdown, the Treasurer will work closely with states and territories through the Council on Federal Financial Relations to reform planning and zoning regulations, which will help boost competition in the supermarket sector by opening up more sites for new stores.

Current planning and zoning frameworks, including land use restrictions, zoning laws and planning regulations, are acting as a barrier to competition by inhibiting business entry and expansion.

They potentially allow for land banking, preventing competition and pushing up prices in our local communities.

Today’s announcements come in addition to a series of actions undertaken by the Albanese Labor Government to protect Australians at the checkout, in stores and online.

• Last week the Government released for consultation a new mandatory Food and Grocery Code, to ensure Aldi, Coles, Woolworths and Metcash are subject to multi-million-dollar penalties for serious breaches of the Code.
• CHOICE has also released its second Albanese Government-funded price monitoring report, giving Australians accurate data on where to get the cheapest groceries.
• We’ve banned unfair contract terms and increased penalties for breaches of competition and consumer law, and are delivering the most significant merger reforms in Australia in almost 50 years, and working with the states and territories to revitalise National Competition Policy.
• The next phase of the ACCC Supermarkets Inquiry will see the ACCC conduct public hearings with the supermarket sector later in the year.

As at 1 October 2024.