Peter Dutton has committed the Coalition to develop laws that could extend to forcibly breaking up Coles and Woolworths after he stepped in to stop the Nationals working with the Greens to rein in supermarket power.

As the companies face intense scrutiny on their pricing practices from shoppers and parliament, new Australian Bureau of Statistics data on Tuesday showed some of the claims of price gouging are exaggerated, with the costs of food and non-alcoholic beverages in Australia increasing by less than those in New Zealand, the UK, Canada, the US and the EU.