LEON DELANEY:
Yesterday the people at CHOICE provided their quarterly report into supermarket prices to tell us what was revealed. The Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities, Treasury and Employment, not to mention our very own local member here in the seat of Fenner, Dr Andrew Leigh, good afternoon.
ANDREW LEIGH:
Good afternoon, Leon, great to be with you.
DELANEY:
Thanks for joining us today. Are the supermarkets still taking us for a ride?
LEIGH:
We’re doing our very best to make sure that’s not the case, Leon. Part of it is this quarterly grocery price monitoring which puts more information in the hands of consumers and puts more competitive pressure on the supermarkets. Last parliamentary sittings we passed through parliament the mandatory Food and Grocery Code that gets a fairer deal for farmers, pity the Coalition didn’t vote for it, but it got through the parliament all the same, and we’re also giving more money to the Competition Watchdog to crack down on shrinkflation by enforcing the Unit Pricing Code. The latest results for the CHOICE price survey show again that Aldi is the cheapest supermarket, followed by Coles this time, followed by Woolworths and then IGA.
DELANEY:
Interestingly, though, there was a bit of an anomaly where the Coles and Woolworths supermarkets provided cheaper options for a leg of lamb. I mean, that’s good news as we head towards the Australia Day barbecue weekend next month.
LEIGH:
Yeah, sure it is. And what they’ve done this time, CHOICE, is just to take a couple of spotlight items, a leg of lamb and 2 litres of ice cream, where they looked at the leg of lamb, and then they had Coles and Woolies equal first, a little bit cheaper than Aldi this time around. And then when they looked at the ice‑cream, it was very tight, basically Coles, Woolies and Aldi all within 10 cents of one another.
DELANEY:
Okay. So, what have we learnt from this process so far? Consumers are firmly of the belief that supermarkets have been profiteering. Supermarkets will tell you, ‘Well, hang on, our margins aren’t that great, and we’ve been affected by increased costs just as much as everybody else’. Have we achieved any clarity around those issues?
LEIGH:
Well, it’s up to the supermarkets to defend their pricing, but I do note that there’s a case being brought against them by the competition watchdog for misleading specials. That alleges that both Coles and Woolworths temporarily spiked up prices on certain items, and then advertised them with a ‘price dropped’ sticker when they went back down to where they were. So that case will work its way through the courts, and it’s not for me to judge the merits of it, simply to say that that allegation has been made.
DELANEY:
Yes, it certainly has. But of course, that’s just good marketing practice, isn’t it, you know, telling the consumer a really good story, but who cares if it’s true? Never let the facts get in the way of a good story; isn’t that the motto?
LEIGH:
Well, that’s why we have competition laws, to make sure that you can’t mislead your customers. In this case the allegation that the ACCC is making is that Coles and Woolworths misled their customers with fake specials. That will be tested in the court, but it’s being tested at a time when the supermarkets are under more pressure from the government and consumers than ever before. We’ve got the first in 16 years review by the competition watchdog of supermarkets, that’s brought down its draft inquiry with the final inquiry report coming down at the beginning of next year. All of this, Leon, is about getting a fairer deal for families and a fairer deal for farmers.
DELANEY:
Indeed. Now there’s been a few big things happening in the last few days, and one of the more disturbing ones, of course, was last week’s atrocious attack on a synagogue in Melbourne. The Prime Minister was initially criticised for not moving quickly enough in response. Of course we’ve seen the investigating authorities, both the police in Victoria and the Australian Federal Police conducting their investigation, it’s up to them to declare whether or not an incident is terrorist related, it’s not up to politicians to make that declaration. But there was some criticism directed to the Prime Minister. Could he have done more sooner?
LEIGH:
Look, I don’t think so, Leon. We’ve appointed the first ever Antisemitism Envoy. Last year, we gave $25 million for improving the safety and security of Jewish sites, and we’ve given another $32 million to the Executive Council for Australian Jewry. We have the National Student Ombudsman, we’ve criminalised doxxing with legislation that passed through parliament without the Coalition’s support. So, we’ve been very focused on the issue of antisemitism, and the Prime Minister has had the opportunity to visit the site of this horrendous fire‑bombing, just an awful incident.
DELANEY:
Unfortunately, it’s not entirely an isolated incident, is it? Even now, this week, we’ve seen an incident in Sydney that the New South Wales Police Commissioner and the Premier, Chris Minns, were talking about earlier today, where a motor vehicle was apparently set on fire, and there were associated acts of vandalism along with that. This is a problem that seems to have emerged quite dramatically in recent times. Why do you think that is?
LEIGH:
No, but I think it is a reflection of what’s going on in the Middle East at the moment, and we’re seeing a rise in antisemitism, and also a rise in Islamophobia for that matter, right around the world, and Australia’s not immune from that, but it doesn’t mean that any of this is acceptable. These are shocking incidents, and the perpetrators should face the full force of the law. You’ve got this taskforce now which has been established, 21 AFP police and analysts who are deploying nationally investigating these antisemitism threats and offences.
DELANEY:
The Federal Coalition, the Opposition, has effectively claimed that the government is directly responsible for the rise in antisemitism. We’ve seen Jane Hume, the Shadow Finance Minister, suggesting that the government’s attitude had emboldened, if not enabled the people that were responsible for these acts of vandalism and aggression. We’ve seen of course the suggestion that the government’s attitude on Palestine, particularly in directing the votes in the United Nations in relation to Palestine, has in some way encouraged antisemitism. What do you say to refute those allegations?
LEIGH:
Yeah, look, I think it’s disappointing that the Coalition is using this as an excuse to play partisan politics. The recent vote in the United Nations was 157 countries voting for a 2‑state solution, 8 countries voting against. In other words, for every country that voted against, there were 19 countries that voted for. Australia voted alongside the UK, Germany, Canada and Japan, and we took an approach in supporting a 2‑state solution that’s consistent with the way in which the Howard government had voted when these sorts of issues came to the United Nations. Ultimately, the only path to peace is a 2‑state solution, and that’s why Australia voted in favour of that 2‑state solution in common with so many of our other allies.
DELANEY:
The Prime Minister also announced on Monday that there would be a special operation taskforce to address antisemitism, coincidentally, not long after the Opposition Leader called for exactly that. That’s a coincidence, right?
LEIGH:
Well, the antisemitism taskforce which I spoke about before is an appropriate response to this incident that we saw in the Adass Israel Synagogue in Ripponlea. It has been established by the AFP, and those 21 officers are out there doing their job. I don’t think the AFP need politicisation; they don’t need Peter Dutton telling them what to do. They need their appropriate independence, and they will investigate this with the full force of their powers and the laws available to them.
DELANEY:
Indeed, yesterday the Reserve Bank surprised almost nobody by refusing to change interest rates. However, there are increasing numbers of economists, credible economists, suggesting that they might be dragging their heels on this matter. What’s the government’s response to the Reserve Bank’s intransigence when it comes to cutting interest rates?
LEIGH:
Our main priority is in fighting inflation. We’ll leave the Reserve Bank to make its own independent decisions. I would note that if you go to the ABS website right now, you’ve got inflation down within the Reserve Bank’s target band, 2.8 per cent, and we’re working on our inflation‑fighting measures while still maintaining a low level of unemployment. Unemployment at 4.1 per cent has meant that we’ve got an inflation back into the target band without smashing the labour market. If Peter Dutton had had his way, Australians wouldn’t have that cost‑of‑living relief. He’s voted against basically every bit of cost‑of‑living relief we’ve put through the parliament. He believes Australians should be working longer for less. We believe in supporting Australians and in measures that counter inflation.
DELANEY:
Okay. But of course, it’s not going to help the government as you head into an election early next year if the Reserve Bank refuses to cut interest rates.
LEIGH:
Well, what we’ve done is brought down 2 surpluses, and those surpluses have taken pressure off inflation, as the Reserve Bank themselves have acknowledged. They’ve recognised the important work we’re doing, and the Reserve Bank Board’s statement that came out yesterday made clear that we’re making progress in the fight against inflation. That is our central focus as a government.
DELANEY:
Now I’m told that once again you’ve been found to be the fittest Federal politician in Australia, is that right?
LEIGH:
Well, this is this AusActive ‘Fit for Office’ competition they’ve been running; it encourages you to see how many minutes of high‑intensity exercise you can get each day, and it turns out that I’ve managed to get more high‑intensity exercise in over the last fortnight than my colleagues. It’s good fun, it’s great to engage in a little bit of bipartisan sports play, and also to remind people that politicians don’t just run for office, we can also run while we’re in office.
DELANEY:
Okay. But my question is how did you beat David Pocock?
LEIGH:
Well, I’m not sure how intensely David has been exercising or how long. Maybe the triathlon training has helped me a little bit there.
DELANEY:
Thanks very much for chatting today.
LEIGH:
Real pleasure, Leon, thank you.
DELANEY:
Thank you. Dr Andrew Leigh, the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities, Treasury and Employment, and of course our local member here in the Federal seat of Fenner, on 2CC.