Supermarket price gouging or cynical political deflection?

Both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton have announced separate initiatives to address concerns of "price gouging" and alleged market abuse by Australia’s two major supermarket chains, Woolworths and Coles.

This is despite the ACCC, after an exhaustive inquiry in 2008 and more recently with a price inquiry launched in 2024, stating it had found no clear evidence of widespread price gouging in past reviews.

Topher Field exposes the deception that is being played out.

It is increasingly clear that both political leaders are deflecting public frustraton over the rising cost of living toward the supermarkets, as a distraction from deeper structural issues, including a growing national debt which will soon exceed $1 trillion, record high immigration and a weakening currency that increases the price of imports.

Have your say. The actions proposed by the two leaders:

Option 1: Will reduce the cost-of-living, or 

Option 2: Will do little because deeper structural issues will remain unaddressed.

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About PByT Surveys & Open Democracy

The PByT surveys represent a rolling snapshot of global sentiment from real people whose identity has been verified. The results can be analyzed in a variety of ways to get a better understanding of key issues utilizing Bayesian statistics - a mathematical concept that updates beliefs in light of new data or evidence.

As a result, these surveys have the potential to be the most definitive resources on some of the most critically important issues of modern times and serve as the basis for the idea of "open democracy."

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