Kevin Rudd fought the election by promising “fresh leadership” that would make our lives better without involving unpopular change. Indeed, he promised to retain vast swathes of John Howard’s policies. In short, he promised change without change. The public’s slowly growing disillusionment with the Rudd Government represents its dawning realisation that change without change isn’t possible.
Someone who has made a career out of studying grocery prices and its related issues is Associate Professor Frank Zumbo, of the Australian School of Business at the University of NSW. “What is going on is an insult to the intelligence of Australian consumers,” Zumbo says. “We’ve just had an inquiry into grocery and food prices. The report is a disgrace. It is a whitewash.”
Only weeks ago, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Graeme Samuel told the ABC’s 7.30 Report that “there would be very few observers in the marketplace that would say to you, ‘Coles and Woolworths are not vigorously competing against each other.”‘ Now, in a somersault worthy of an Olympic gold medal, Samuel has concluded that “the grocery market is workably competitive.”
The taxation review will create competing expectations between those demanding real and long-lasting tax reform and personal income-tax payers - voters. It’s a recipe for political grief that dwarfs the disappointment of the grocery and fuel price reviews - which have done nothing to cut prices.
The GroceryChoice website shows a trolley full of food on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast is worth about $150, while the same groceries in Darwin and Hobart cost about $12 more.
The six month Australian Competition and Consumer Commission inquiry largely absolved the big two of direct responsibility for the surge in food prices of the past five years, instead blaming global demand and supply changes, higher production costs and the drought.
Underscoring the Rudd team’s pre-election hints it could actually do something about the rising cost of living, the government is promising to introduce some reforms designed to improve competition amongst supermarkets. But the main drivers of inflation in the grocery sector are issues the government has little or no control over.
GroceryWatch and its related measures are meant to satisfy the expectation the prime minister built up during the election campaign that Labor would do something to bring down the cost of living. But as in the case of FuelWatch this exercise is more likely than not to come back and bite him on the proverbial.