At the request of Senator McKim, I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The need for the Government to step in to break up the Coles and Woolworths duopoly and provide cost-of-living relief for Australians by rolling out publicly owned supermarkets.

If ever there was an idea whose time has come, it's this. Woolies and Coles made a combined $2.2 billion in profits last year, gouging hundreds of dollars from every family in this country in pure profit to the shareholders of Coles and Woolies, much of it going overseas to private equity firms who are making bank, literally. This duopoly is making bank while so many Australians are struggling just to put food on their table. It won't come as a surprise to anyone who's been out talking, but 79 per cent of Australians found it harder to put food on the table last year, and more than one in three reported that they'd been skipping meals or eating less due to the cost of groceries. People are pushing their trolley down the aisle and then, when they're heading up to the checkout, it's like they're pushing a boulder up a hill with the anxiety: will you be able to afford food for your family—food for yourself and food for your kids? The same basket of groceries at Woolworths has gone up by 8.5 per cent in just the last 16 months, and, at the same time as these prices are going up, people's pay cheques under Labor have just flatlined. They haven't moved since 2011. They are back to where they were in 2011. These numbers are shameful.

And the big supermarkets want us to think that they're struggling with inflation. Fuel prices, cost of living—'It's tough for Coles and Woolies too, you know, and that's why you're paying more.' But Australians don't buy that rubbish. We know that the likes of Coles and Woolies are profiteering, taking the money when they can, because they've got the power in the market. They dominate the market and they squeeze out other competitors. Don't let them compete on price to keep their profits up. And Australians feel that in the price of essentials, the price of food. And what does the government do? All we get from Labor are reasons for doing nothing. 'Oh, no, we couldn't possibly afford to build something. Oh, no, we haven't got the competence to do that. Oh, no, we can't.' They'll probably roll out sovereign risk or some other kind of do-nothing excuse.

And you know what? Australians don't buy that either. They have to buy overpriced groceries, but they don't buy that rubbish coming from this government. Eighty-eight per cent of voters say the federal government could do a lot more to reduce the price of food and groceries, and they're right. Government could do something, not wring its hands and say: 'Oh, isn't it bad that our mate Donald Trump started a war and increased the fuel prices? Oh, isn't it sad that it's getting so expensive?' They don't want you wringing your hands. They want government to help. People are right to be fed up with government saying it's too hard to make the bold action. We need to actually start making life better for people. Millions of Australians are struggling to put food on the table, and they want a government to be part of the solution, not one that's just protecting the profits of Coles and Woolies.

Here's an idea: Australians should have a publicly owned supermarket chain that makes food cheaper and puts pressure on the big chains to stop the profiteering. Mayor Mamdani is doing that in New York, right? When he rolled it out, the corporations there and all these political opponents said, 'Oh, this is terrible. This is terrible,' but you know what? New Yorkers love it. They love the idea of cheaper groceries. They like the idea of taking the profit out and not feeding the profit of some corporate when they're just trying to feed their families. Better things are possible. Labor, the Liberals, One Nation—they're all taking the dime from big corporations, taking the private planes, taking the big donations, taking the fossil fuel donations to run their campaigns. Do you know the party that doesn't? It's the Greens.

If Australians are struggling to put food on the table, Coles and Woolies should not be posting billion-dollar profits. It's time to break up the duopoly. It's time to act for Australia. (Time expired)