2023-10-19
The Victorian Greens have launched a four-point-plan to stop supermarket price gouging.
The plan comes off the back of the results of the Greens cost-of-living survey which painted a devastating picture of how the crisis is impacting Victorians.
With people struggling with unfair price hikes, the Greens are calling on the Victorian Labor Government to:
- Declare groceries a regulated industry. To give the Essential Services Commission the power to prevent supermarket profiteering through price controls on essential items.
- Re-establish an Office for Prices. So the government is on your side and works with the community, not for profiteering corporations, to deter excessive price rises, with power to monitor, investigate and expose excessive price rises across the economy.
- Appoint a Minister for Fair Prices. To lead efforts across government to stop unfair price hikes, to take on profiteering corporations like the supermarket duopoly and to ensure the government can be held to account.
- Inquiry into food affordability. To look at ways to lower the cost of food and make sure that everyone has access to healthy, affordable food in Victoria.
The survey was conducted by the Greens earlier this year and completed by over 1,200 people from over 300 suburbs.
It found that bills (49.3%), food (46.7%), and rent (41.7%) were the biggest costs respondents were struggling with, while 70 per cent reported that their mental health had been impacted negatively as a result.
Victorian Greens economic justice spokesperson, Sam Hibbins, said the cost-of-living crisis was having a profound impact on people, and that the Victorian government needed to take on the supermarket duopoly in order to lower prices.
Quotes attributable to Victorian Greens economic justice spokesperson, Sam Hibbins MP:
“Everyday people are experiencing worsening mental health, reduced quality of life and significant hardship because they simply can’t afford bills, food, or the rent.
“The profiteering supermarket duopoly of Coles and Woolworths are making the cost-of-living crisis worse, by increasing the price of food and their profit margins at the same time.
“People are crying out for direct government intervention. Yet the Victorian Labor Government is choosing not to act, despite having the powers to do so.”