Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I mean to address an issue that would reduce the price of food in this country by 30 per cent and then to be given five minutes after three efforts to move the resolution and exercise my rights in the standing orders of this parliament. I know a little bit about those, because I have been here for 30 years, which is more than anyone else can say. Let me turn to the issue in the four minutes I've got left. I'm very angry, and I'm going to take this matter further, I can assure you.

In 1991, Coles and Woolworths had 51 per cent of the market, and their mark-up was near enough to 97 per cent. I think that's outrageous. My family have had clothing stores for generations in Australia, and we never went over 50 per cent. And this is fashion goods. After two years, you just have to throw them away, and we used a 50 per cent mark-up. Well, these people were using a 100 per cent markup on food. This was in 1991, when they had 51 per cent of the market. By 2001, they had 70 per cent of the market. Those are not my figures; the government figures said 68 per cent of the market, and the ANOP grocery world figures said it was 72 per cent of the market. So there's no doubt that they've risen from 51 to 70 per cent and that the mark-up went from 100 per cent to 200 per cent. Since then—what, they haven't grown since then? They were growing at two per cent a year. They didn't suddenly stop in the year 2001. The mark-up now is more than 200 per cent. It's probably climbing up close to 300 per cent. Now, we are not a government department, so all we could do was select 15 items. It was quite clear that the mark-up had gone from 100 per cent to 200 per cent to nearly 300 per cent in that period of time.

The people in this place that are taking $300,000 a year off the taxpayers have done absolutely nothing, and here we are yet again. The member for Clark, myself, the member for Calare and all the crossbenchers are moving once again to do something about it. All the government is doing is saying, 'We're going to have a look at it, and if they're naughty boys we're going to punish them.' That is the essence of the legislation, right? So how are you going to prove they're naughty boys? They've got a bigger turnover, I think, than the government has got. You've got Buckley's chance of proving anything against them.

There is no other country on earth—England was the worst, when we looked, and, in England, the top six had 36 per cent of the market and there were people squealing in England over it, and they were the worst. (Time expired)

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