Katter flanks farmers to blow the whistle on supermarket markups
April 17, 2025
KAP Federal Member Bob Katter and Independent Member for Calare, Andrew Gee have been flanked by farmers out the front of a Woolworths in Bathurst in New South Wales to continue to crusade against the supermarket duopoly and to blow the whistle on the monstrous, unjustified markups of everyday fruit and vegetables.
"The ACCC said in their February 2025 report there was no evidence of price gouging despite the fact that they are among the most profitable supermarkets in the world. Well, if you believe that, you believe in the tooth fairy and we will be moving for the head of the ACCC to be sacked when Parliament resumes," Mr Katter said.
He said the rage he felt after reading the report left him with no other option but to prove farm gate prices in another part of the country were as bad as in north Queensland.
"It is clear we set the agenda last year when we started the parliamentary year with an enormously powerful pig suit "snouts in the trough" stunt. On that same day, Woolworths reduced the price of over 400 items of food, and we introduced the Reducing Supermarket Dominance Bill. Then, every other party announced they would be moving for divestiture."
Mr Katter said that the farm price "stunt" in Bathurst drew the attention needed to ensure that Australian voters understood the two major "big boys" in the Parliament will look after the interests of the two "big boys" outside the Parliament, and that only independent MPs would be able to pressure the government into action.
"The spotlight has been put fairly and squarely on the supermarket giants and what happens to parasites under the bright heat of a spotlight? They perish," Mr Katter said.
Hon Andrew Gee said, "We need to get the snouts of the supermarket giants out of the money trough.
"They are wallowing in world-leading profits while paying our farmers a pittance and price gouging consumers on the way through. It's shocking behaviour in a cost-of-living crisis.
"Our Bill would give farmers a better deal at the farm gate and consumers a better deal at the checkout.
"It would even the playing field between farmers and consumers on the one hand, and the supermarket giants on the other.
"Coles and Woolies are amongst the most profitable supermarkets in the world. They have an 80 per cent market share and prices have risen 24 per cent in the last five years. These profits have been made at a huge cost to our farmers and their own customers. It's disgraceful.
"Farmers are leaving the land because they can't make a decent return, and consumers are at breaking point.
"Our Bill is a gamechanger that will finally bring these price gougers to account," Mr Gee said.
Mr Katter said he had been contacted by farmers and consumers from all over the country who had asked him to continue to fight on their behalf after being squeezed for years by the greedy supermarket giants and their market power.
"A number of our farmers pay themselves some of the lowest wages in Australia. Recent calculations are that most farmers are paying themselves less than $2 an hour," he said.
"The return that an Australian farmer can get for their produce is generally split with 50 per cent going to wages, a further 49 per cent covering transport, fertiliser, packaging and farm maintenance, leaving only 1 per cent for the farming family.
"I mean, are we just going to let them continue screwing the farmers down through the floor and charging the consumers a 'squillion' dollars? No bloody way."
The Reducing Supermarket Dominance Bill introduced to Parliament in March 2024:
- Forces divestiture of the supermarkets and their market power in the grocery sector to a maximum of 20 per cent within five years.
- Provides for 100 per cent markup on the price paid to producers, to what is charged to consumers.
- Scraps the 'food and grocery code of conduct', noting it fails to address power imbalances and instead provides a mechanism by which supermarkets control suppliers and producers.
FARM GATE VERSUS SUPERMARKET PRICES
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