Anthony Albanese wants you to blame Coles and Woolies for cost-of-living crisis | Caleb Bond

Anthony Albanese would love you to think Coles and Woolies are behind your battered bank balance. Don’t fall for it, writes Caleb Bond.

No, the supermarkets aren’t the reason you’re skint – though that’s what the prime minister would like you to think.

The timing of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s legal action against Coles and Woolworths could not have been better for the Albanese government.

They stand accused of jacking up prices on certain items, only to then reduce them – but not back to what they used to be – and calling it a special.

It’s clearly wrong and it ought to be stopped.

But Anthony Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers are now trying to harness the case to pin the blame for the cost of living on the big grocery merchants.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The government this week gave the ACCC an extra $30 million, ostensibly to fight the supermarkets over pricing policies.

Mr Albanese, in a written statement, said: “We don’t want to see ordinary Australians, families and pensioners being taken for a ride by the supermarkets, and we’re taking steps to make sure they get a fair go at the checkout.”

Time for a reality check.

No doubt the two big supermarkets have been dodgy in jacking up prices and then trying to tell us they have reduced them but there is no large scale price gouging imposed upon consumers.

Coles’ post-tax profit margin for the 2023 financial year was 2.57 per cent – lower than the 2.73 per cent it recorded the year prior. Woolworths’ margin was 2.7 per cent.

They sell a lot of gear every day which means that small fluctuations in profit margins cause big changes in the actual dollar amount of that profit, hence how their profits have soared above $1 billion.

That also coincides with high inflation which will necessarily cause a higher dollar amount on paper without any real increase in value.

Yes, they turn big profits in a monetary sense – but they’re doing so by selling a hell of a lot of stuff, not by hugely inflating the shelf price of products.

Most price increases are driven by the wholesalers from whom the supermarkets buy who, like the rest of us, are battling higher energy and operating costs.

Mr Chalmers will also look into “land banking” – a practice whereby Coles and Woolworths allegedly buy up properties near their shops in an effort to prevent competitors from opening nearby – and attempt to stop it with the cooperation of the states.

Treasurer, Jim Chalmers. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

That’s slightly different from what Mr Albanese said a week ago.

Asked about land banking on radio, he said that if one supermarket were forced to sell land then “chances are Coles or another of the big giants would buy it” and dismissed the whole concept, saying: “You’re telling me that an entire town, there’d only be one site where a supermarket could possibly be built?”

How quickly things change.

Someone has clearly whispered in the prime minister’s ear and suggested he sheet some of the blame for the cost of living on to the supermarkets by making them out to be price gouging bastards.

He and Mr Chalmers have tried to do exactly the same thing with the Reserve Bank, blaming their interest rate rises for the cost of living – despite RBA Governor Michele Bullock saying one of the biggest drivers of inflation is government spending.

The Albanese government has failed to pull its weight in reducing the cost of living and is now trying to blame everyone else.

Don’t fall for it.

Originally published as Anthony Albanese wants you to blame Coles and Woolies for cost-of-living crisis | Caleb Bond