Senator Joyce said in Canberra today "The revelations of the ACCC inquiry yesterday showed that it has not been a mistaken apparition; the grocery market is overcentralised and we paying higher prices than New Zealanders because of it. So, why on earth is the Labor Party going to make a bad situation worse by doing the major retailers' bidding and destroying the Birdsville Amendment?
"More competition brings down prices for the consumer whereas market centralisation allows the dominant players to exploit the consumer and the farmer. Less competition means higher fuel and grocery prices for consumers and this all adds to inflation. Less competition means that farmers get less and less for their meat and produce, threatening their very livelihood.
"It always appears that sharp corporate practices are justified as being necessary to ‘get efficient' but the returns from these efficiencies always seem to end up in the same corporate pockets. Fuel prices and the shopper docket system, as with all things in an overcentralised market, go from short term mirage to long term consumer rip off.
"As the independents disappear from the market and the push for ethanol is buried, the consumer with a car is left with only one question, "can I afford the fuel or do I walk?" There is no alternate product and manipulation by the major players to remove competition continues to exacerbate the ever escalating prices.
"This nation must have credible policies which re-establish the Australian citizen's right to determine their future by profiting from their own exertions in small business. The Australian citizen must have the ability to start a business without the fear of being squashed by corporate giants. The Australian citizen must have access to become a member of the merchant class.
"When the market becomes over centralised it is not a free market. The market principle itself becomes corrupted. It is oxymoronic to use the defence of the free market to justify abusing a large market share to destroy other participants so you have the whole market place to yourself or, by default, you exist in a cosy relationship with one or two other well understood major players who do not step on your toes so long as you do not step on theirs.
"It's become apparent that the good citizens of NZ get a better deal at the checkout than Australians do from an Australian based multi-national – Woolworths. The reason they get a better deal is there are more aggressive players in the retail grocery market in NZ which are forcing Woolworths to better compete on price. The centralisation of the Australian market also explains how the price of a basket of goods in Australia has increased at a rate far in excess of the average of other countries in the OECD.
"Local planning laws are exacerbating the inability of the Australian citizen to enter into the retail trade because prime sites are locked up by the major players in land banks and 'lock out' clauses at supermarkets.
"Whether it is the overcentralisation of the grocery market, the overcentralisation of fuel refining and retailing, the overcentralisation of chemical and fertiliser sales, the outcome is the same. The convenient, lazy, slow slide of government policy toward supporting the multi-billion dollar backed lobbying power in Canberra comes at the expense of small businesses, the merchant class and consumers. The widespread ownership of the agricultural production unit is diminished and the final exploitation of the consumer at the checkout is entrenched.
"This is one of the major challenges which confront our nation and there is far more interest in this when the mothers pick up their kids from school than in who sent who an email. Australian mothers want to hear how competition in this country will be protected by a Government that is willing to stand up to corporate giants that rip off consumers. This is far more relevant to Australians struggling to make ends meets in the face of record food and grocery price rises."
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