Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. In Coles, pink lady apples are $8.90 a kilo. It's no surprise that Woolworths advertise the same apples for the same price. Australian families are struggling to afford basic groceries. One in three kids regularly have no school lunch due in part to supermarket duopoly price fixing and price gouging. Will the government urgently consider bringing forward the timeline for supermarkets to comply with the ban on excessive pricing of groceries that's not due to come into effect until 1 July?

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thanks to the honourable member for her question. As we've acknowledged in other answers, we know that Australians are under financial pressure and a lot of that pressure does come at the checkout, and that's what's motivated a lot of our efforts when it comes to our competition policy suite. I acknowledge Assistant Minister Leigh and Minister Mulino for the work that we do together to try and make sure that our supermarket sector is as competitive as it can be, and also that we have the price transparency that we need and that we're cracking down on price gouging wherever it pops up.

I acknowledge the honourable member's interest in all of that work. I know that her question is about bringing forward the start date of some of those really important measures. The reality is that we go as quickly as we can, but we're also consulting where we need to and making sure that we get it right. But, at every turn, what we're trying to do is to strengthen the arrangements as soon as we can because we know that supermarket transparency and supermarket competition are potentially a big part of this challenge, and that's why they're a big focus of the government.