The ACTU has welcomed the Albanese Government’s promise to help alleviate cost-of-living pressures by pursuing corporate price gouging. Photo: Luci Germa.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has expressed support for the Albanese Government’s commitment to a law prohibiting price gouging if re-elected.
The Federal Government’s announcement comes after the competition watchdog found that supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths have among the highest profit margins worldwide.
The ACTU has been focusing on corporate price gouging since 2022 when it attacked Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s claim that global inflationary cost-of-living pressures were the result of the rises in workers’ wages.
A price-gouging inquiry led by the ACTU and headed by former ACCC chair professor Allan Fels recommended laws to ban the practice in 2024.
“The Albanese Government’s ban on price gouging is a serious step forward to crack down on the abuse of market power by Australia’s big supermarkets,” ACTU Assistant Secretary Joseph Mitchell said.
“Working people have paid trolley loads of their hard-earned wages to supermarkets that used dodgy tactics to inflate prices, as shown in the Price Gouging Inquiry, chaired by Allan Fels.”
The ACTU said supermarket profits had grown at twice the rate of workers’ pay. The union lampooned the Opposition Leader for “siding with the major supermarkets” by refusing to back a Labor bill that would have forced supermarkets to improve their practices.
“Peter Dutton and the business lobby attempted to blame workers’ pay increases for supermarket price rises, which never rang true,” Mr Mitchell said.
“Today’s measures put supermarkets on notice that they will no longer be able to use shifty tricks to shake down every dollar from workers’ pockets, as a result of the Albanese Government’s supermarket price-gouging ban.”
The anti-price-gouging move, targeted at supermarkets specifically, would seek to fill a gap in Australian competition and consumer laws, which don’t have an explicit ban on excessive prices from corporate entities.
The union body said many European Union nations, some areas of the United States and the United Kingdom already had such protections.
The ACTU praised the policy, which it believes will give regulating agencies a “bigger stick” to use against supermarkets. It also hinted at other measures it would like to see introduced, including clear information on supermarket pricing, price trends and loyalty programs.
