Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

():  I thank the member for Chifley for bringing this motion to the House. For five challenging years, Australian families have weathered high prices to keep the lights on, put a roof over their heads and put food on the family table. In times like these, strong consumer protections are essential. There's no good time to get ripped off. But, in a prolonged cost-of-living crisis, Australian consumers need fairness, transparency and accountability more than ever. Demanding strong protections for Australian consumers means drawing a line between profit and profiteering. It does not begrudge businesses from turning a profit. But, when families are standing in the aisle of a supermarket wondering whether they can afford a block of cheese, something has gone wrong.

We can't talk about consumer vulnerability without taking a good, hard look at the premier duopoly of Australian corporations: Coles and Woolies. The ACCC has found that our grocery giants are among the most profitable in the world, that their product margins have grown over the last five years and that they have limited incentive to compete with each other on price. When our biggest providers of household essentials are posting billion-dollar profits in a cost-of-living crisis, we are entitled to feel that the only thing that is going 'down, down' is trust in Coles and Woolies. Prices are certainly not 'down, down'. A block of cheese will set you back almost $15. Two litres of milk is pushing $7, and you won't get much change out of $20 for a litre of olive oil. It's $20 for a chocolate bunny. It's no wonder that some people are saying that Easter has been cancelled.

In recent years, we've also seen the damage done by Qantas, another flagship Australian business, selling tickets on cancelled flights, accumulating enormous profits while receiving COVID related taxpayer subsidies and slot hoarding to block its competitors. Qantas has been on the nose, and Australians have demanded better. They've wanted to know why this government has not legislated mandatory compensation for delayed and cancelled flights and why it has failed to address the airline duopoly. When a flight is significantly delayed in Canada, every passenger receives $400. In the US, it's $100. In the EU, it's a full refund and 250 Euros. Those payments are made within days of a delayed or cancelled flight. In Australia, we're lucky to get a $20 meal voucher. Airlines would be much less likely to cancel or delay flights or engage in slot hoarding if they had to pay up to $100,000 in compensation per flight. The Albanese government has failed to put in place the one measure which could have transformed how airlines deal with delays at domestic airports and to provide Australian consumers with the protections that they deserve.

Progress has also been slow on banking protections. The Hayne royal commission exposed the massive harms that unregulated banking activity and other poor banking practices have caused for ordinary Australians, but it has taken years to achieve adequate protection against scams, and banks are still often placing the burden of fraud on customers. Australian consumers are still struggling to trust our banks. They feel that the big four, in particular, prioritise profits over customer outcomes. They cite excessive fees, unfair charges, poor service and unethical lending practices. Nearly three-quarters of Australians have lost trust in banks, with younger consumers aged between 18 and 54 and those under financial pressure being the most sceptical about their actions. ASIC has also highlighted poor practices for customers experiencing financial hardship, and the Commonwealth and the NAB have both recently been involved in fraudulent home-loan activities involving AI forgeries, an issue which is likely to cause further loss of trust in our banking processes.

Australians know that rising living costs are squeezing household budgets and increasing hardship in our communities. At times like these, strong consumer protections aren't just desirable; they're essential. All Australians deserve fairness, transparency and accountability at the supermarket, at the bank and at the airport. And all Australians need their government to ensure adequate consumer protection and fair trading practices.

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