NATALIE BARR:
For more let’s hear from the federal Treasurer, Jim Chalmers. Good morning to you. So a recent survey found that actually over a third of vegetable growers are considering leaving the industry. How are you hoping this will change their mind?
JIM CHALMERS:
This is all about a fair go for farmers and families. It’s about ensuring that the big supermarket chains do the right thing by our suppliers and our growers, but also by their customers.
And so it’s about making this Food and Grocery Code mandatory, it’s about making those big fines available if supermarket chains do the wrong thing, and it’s also providing more and better opportunities for people to register disputes or to have those disputes mediated and arbitrated and ultimately solved.
We recognise that the supply chains need to be better for farmers and growers and producers, and by doing that and by making sure that the supermarket sector’s more competitive, we can get better outcomes for customers at the checkout as well.
BARR:
Okay. So if I’m a big supermarket – there are billions of dollars of fines here – if I’m a big supermarket, what could I get fined for?
CHALMERS:
The sorts of things we’re worried about is where agreements aren’t sufficiently followed through, where records aren’t kept, where farmers and growers and producers are treated shabbily, where agreements are not adhered to. There’s a whole bunch of stuff that has concerned us for a little while now, that’s why we asked Craig Emerson to do this review of the Food and Grocery Code, and why we’re implementing every single one of his recommendations.
We can make these supply chains much fairer; we can get a fair go for farmers and families, and that’s what this is all about.
BARR:
And I guess the big question is, when I am going through that supermarket with my trolley and going to the checkout, how much will prices drop by?
CHALMERS:
That remains to be seen, Nat. We’ve got to legislate these changes, but we believe that by making our supermarkets more competitive in a whole bunch of ways, not just this way, this important way, that we can put downward pressure on prices.
We’ve empowered the ACCC, we’ve made pricing more transparent by funding the consumer group Choice, we’re reforming mergers and acquisitions, and we’re making the Food and Grocery Code mandatory. All of these things together are about making our supermarkets more competitive, because if they’re more competitive, then we get that downward pressure on prices that we all want to see.
BARR:
So being the Treasurer, I’m sure you’ve got your trusty calculator out, how much would you like prices to drop at the supermarket by, cause you love numbers.
CHALMERS:
I do love numbers, but I don’t make those kinds of predictions. My job is to make the sector as competitive as it can be, and this is an important part of that. If it’s more competitive, if it’s more transparent, if people are getting a fairer go, then we’ll see better outcomes for people at the supermarket checkout.
We know that they’re under pressure that’s why exactly one week from today we’re rolling out these tax cuts for every taxpayer, a pay rise for people on awards, cheaper medicines, energy bill relief, and another couple of weeks of paid parental leave as well.
This is all about ensuring that we don’t just acknowledge the pressures that people are under but actually respond and do something about it. Our cost‑of‑living help is all about that, but also our approach to the big supermarket chains.
BARR:
So with the supermarket thing, did you do modelling?
CHALMERS:
Obviously we did a whole bunch of analysis, it’s been –
BARR:
And what did that show?
CHALMERS:
It showed that the more competitive we can make our supermarkets and the fairer go we can get for our farmers and families –
BARR:
But like numbers‑wise.
CHALMERS:
– the better outcomes people will get at the checkout.
BARR:
What did the calculator say?
CHALMERS:
I can see you doing the calculator fingers there, Nat. What I’m telling you is that the more competitive the system is, the better outcomes for consumers. I’m not going to provide for you, the different prices for every item at the checkout. But I think people understand, they want their farmers to be treated fairly, as do we, that’s what this is about. They want the supermarkets to be more competitive, that’s what all these changes are about, and it’s also what our cost‑of‑living help is all about.
This time next week those tax cuts for every taxpayer will start rolling out, and that will make it easier for people at the checkout too.
BARR:
Yep. Well, that’s what we want. Treasurer, thank you very much for your time.
CHALMERS:
Thanks for yours, Nat.