My eyes couldn't possibly roll further back into my head watching the media and the usual suspects crash out over the Greens policy to run publicly owned supermarkets. But, if the commentariat and some of my colleagues took a single moment to unclutch their pearls, none would dare to suggest that the status quo of the supermarket duopoly is actually working for Aussies right now. Last financial year, Woolworths made $1.13 billion in profit, and Coles wasn't far behind, with a net profit of $1.09 billion. It's entirely by design that these figures are super-hard to comprehend, but, to put it into context, if these profits were combined and those supermarkets became a nation-state called 'Colesworth', they would have a bigger economy than most of our Pacific neighbours, half of the Caribbean and a handful of African countries. And where are these profits going? They're not going into the pockets of workers who keep the shelves stocked up and who are mostly on minimum wage—and that's if they haven't fallen afoul of another incident of systematic wage theft. They're not going into the pockets of the families who are buying the essentials like meat, bread, milk, fruit and veg, because, as we all know, the prices of those things have exploded dramatically.

So I do congratulate my colleagues the Greens on bringing this issue to light and providing us with the potential solution to the egregious corporate greed we continue to fall prey to. To all the naysayers out there: really look at the profits, follow the money, and you will know that this is not serving Australians at all.