It seems I'm finally getting my tax money's worth from the work that several politicians are putting in this week. They've ordered the supermarket chains to explain why grocery prices are so high that they have pushed many families to breaking point.
A leading economic institute noted that if it weren't for Australian businesses, including supermarkets, hiking up their prices by a total of $160 billion a year, over and above the increase in their own capital expenses, inflation could have been much lower than it was: an annual average of 2.7% versus its 2022 peak of 7.8%. In short, we could have dodged the shock mortgage payment increases if not for - to put it bluntly - the relentless price-gouging so deceptively pinned on COVID.
The ongoing Senate Select Committee on Supermarket Prices inquiry, which is really turning the screws on its subjects, primarily Coles and Woolworths but also Bunnings, could propel us in the direction of making price gouging illegal. In Australia, price gouging is legal, but in the EU price gouging is illegal and organisations face penalties of between six and 20% of their total revenue if found guilty.
For once, our politicians are doing something useful!
