Qantas named and shamed in Fels’ price gouging inquiry   

Sydney Morning Herald
February 7, 2024

Qantas was singled out for its domination of Australian aviation in an inquiry into price gouging produced by former competition watchdog head Allan Fels for the Australian Council of Trade Unions, which found that Australians were paying too much for everything from energy prices to groceries and childcare.

“Australians are paying prices too high too often, and the cause is weak and ineffective competition,” he said in an address to the National Press Club on Wednesday.

Allan Fels said Australians are facing unfair pricing in many sectors thanks to poor competition across the country.


Fels said the consumer watchdog needed more power, and that competition law should be strengthened. Ideally, he said, a law should be introduced that would allow the commission to break up big businesses where a court has found there was a serious breach of competition law.

“Changes to the competition law could be done very quickly,” he said. “That could be done, introduced into Parliament within two or three months.”

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is restricted in what it can investigate, and there is no set of government policies on excessive pricing. Fels said that must change, and it could be legislated within months if the government was willing to address the issues.

Fels said Qantas dominates the nation’s airline duopoly and claimed the airline’s price rises coupled with fewer services had economy-shifting effects.


“Qantas’ ability to reduce supply while increasing prices and suffering no material loss of market share, may have affected CPI [inflation] in December 2022, and therefore may have impacted the Reserve Bank’s inflation expectations and rate increases,” he said in the report.

He said the Department of Infrastructure should use its review of the sector to remove “unnecessary restrictions” on competition in domestic and international aviation.



In a statement, Qantas said airfares had dropped significantly from their December 2022 peak, when they spiked due to a combination of post-COVID reductions in services and the concurrent opening of international borders which fanned high consumer demand.


Supermarket inquiry
How much do supermarkets gouge us? Time to check it out


“While the domestic market is concentrated, it is still highly competitive. There are now four large jet operators, with Regional Express expanding onto mainline routes and the entry of Bonza,” the airline said.

Fels said he was also concerned about price gouging in the electricity sector, and it required urgent investigation.

“The electricity industry is riddled with questionable prices,” he said on Wednesday.  

Fels said the current bidding system used to determine prices at the wholesale level on the east coast was not fit for purpose, and found that businesses and consumers were charged differently for their power, which needed deeper regulatory investigation.

Banking also has a “significant lack” of competition, Fels said, and the position of major banks is protected by the Council of Financial Regulators.

Fels said one way to make the sector more competitive would be to make it easier for consumers to switch banks.

“The best solution is to require bank accounts to be readily portable, in the same way as years ago when the government and the ACCC required mobile phone businesses to enable customers to switch suppliers whilst retaining their existing telephone numbers,” he said.

Gnads wrote on Feb 7^th, 2024 at 6:17pm:


Is he black?

Was Joyce a white n*gger? Is he no longer a n*gger since leaving?

If there was money to be made from selling consumer goods and food below supermarket prices it would already be happening on the internet.

Australians are too lazy to seek cheaper prices so they continue shopping at the most convenient location.

I have purchased 58 inch smart TV, laptop computer, and a large 100 kg 18.5 ft^3 refrigerator and a bunch of other stuff online and for a far lower price than brick and mortar stores.

Professor Fels’ report shines a light on price gouging and unfair pricing
February 6, 2024  ACTU.
Last August, the ACTU launched an inquiry into price gouging and unfair pricing practices, chaired by former ACCC Chair Professor Allan Fels AO. The inquiry has conducted public hearings in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Cairns, and Canberra, receiving over 750 public submissions and more than 20 detailed contributions from academics, experts, think tanks, unions, businesses, and their representatives.

Professor Fels’ report examined a broad suite of industries, including banks​, wholesale electricity and retail pricing​, early childhood education and care​, supermarkets, and electric vehicles.

His report found that:

Corporate profits have added significantly to inflation and some businesses have too much power over their customers, their supply chain, and their workers. ​
Many businesses are resorting to dodgy price practices, including loyalty taxes, drip pricing, excuse-inflation, rockets and feathers strategies, and confusion pricing​.
A range of sectors are insufficiently competitive or insufficiently regulated, leading to poor consumer outcomes and higher prices.​
The report makes 35 key recommendations: ​6 relate to prices, ​4 relate to mergers and divestiture, ​5 relate to competition policy, and ​20 relate to issues in specific industries examined in the report.

Professor Fels has handed his report to the ACTU and will also hand a copy of his report to the Government later today.

Quotes attributable to ACTU Secretary Sally McManus:

“We welcome Professor Fels’ report and note that it has found what working people suspected. Some big businesses have added to inflation and have too much power over customers, workers, and supply chains. This needs to be reined in.

“The gaming of the system in the wholesale energy market is particularly concerning. Generation makes up 30% of our household bills and Fels asserts there is gouging in the system which is causing workers to pay too much. Action here could have an immediate effect on our cost of living.

“The Inquiry itself already had a significant impact by shining a light on pricing practices that rip off ordinary people, such as those used by supermarkets. We are glad the Inquiry’s findings and process played a part in the Treasurer’s recent referral of the supermarkets to the ACCC. ​

“We thank Professor Fels for his deep and considered look at pricing in our economy and we look forward to considering his findings in detail.”