2026-02-19
greens.org.au
It’s time to make price gouging illegal
You walk into Coles or Woolies for “just a few things” and walk out $80 poorer. Same basket, bigger bill. And while you’re cutting back, the big supermarket giants keep raking it in.
Millions of Australians are in the same boat right now as grocery prices continue to soar.
That isn’t “just inflation”. It’s market power.
‘Price gouging’ is the term for when big companies use their market power to hike prices far beyond their real costs. They do it just because they can, knowing customers have few alternatives. It is a major driver of inflation, and Australians are copping it every day.
Supermarket giants have been doing it for years, but this problem goes far beyond the checkout. The big banks, energy giants, and airlines come to mind too.
In one of the wealthiest countries in the world, no one should struggle to put food on the table or pay basic bills. So it’s time to make price gouging illegal, economy-wide.
Progress to crack down on supermarket price gouging has been far too slow. But this week, the national competition regulator - the ACCC - began legal action against Coles for misleading ‘Down Down’ discounts.
The claim is that Coles have been jacking up prices, only to drop them back to the normal level and call it a ‘discount’ for customers. It is also pursuing a similar case against Woolies.
But the dirty tactics of the big supermarkets are much bigger than just misleading discounts.
The reason that the real reform we need to fix this keeps getting blocked isn’t complicated. It’s all about donations.
The major parties can’t be trusted to hold big corporations and supermarket giants to account. Not while they continue to accept their massive political donations.
They rely on corporate money, including from the supermarkets themselves. And in return, they protect record profits instead of standing up for people who are struggling.
The Greens don’t take these donations. We fight for you. In the last term of parliament, Senator Nick McKim introduced a bill to parliament that would have made price gouging illegal. And what did the major parties do? They rejected it, of course.
As we all know, prices have only continued to soar since then. Action from the Labor government cannot wait. You deserve politicians who will stand up to big corporations, not pocket their money and then look the other way.
We’re not the only country to face this problem. The European Union has provisions to keep grocery prices down, but the Australian government refuses to follow suit.
That’s why the Greens team are continuing to advocate for a tough new corporate watchdog to crack down on price gouging. And we want to see stronger laws to ensure big corporations that illegally jack up prices are subject to more than a slap on the wrist.
This is about more than just your shopping trolley. It’s about who holds power: big corporations, or everyday people?
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