What did the election have to do with the price of eggs? Sadly, quite a lot

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I’ve always thought that grocery shopping can tell you a lot about a person. Not just because of which chain they’re loyal to, or the brands they choose, but also their priorities – ease of routine, savvy price saving or brand loyalty, for example.

Recently, that’s rung particularly true because we’ve seen a clear national divide emerge. Forget NRL v AFL, or potato cakes v potato scallops; over the past seven days you’ve found yourself in the camp of either Australians who don’t think our nation’s next leader needs to know the price of a basic grocery item, or in the camp of those who do.

Three years on, there have been so few big ideas presented from either party that we’re left with little else to discuss.Credit: Dionne Gain

You might be wondering how, with issues such from a housing shortage to ongoing tariff threats from the United States and wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the price of eggs came to summarise perfectly the frustrations of so many voters in this year’s federal election.

You might be asking yourself if any of this actually matters, or whether it’s a sign of how far the quality of political debate has fallen. But unlike previous elections, this so-called “gotcha” question does matter – a lot – in this instance. Let me explain.

First, it’s worth noting that when Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese were asked the price of a dozen eggs during Channel Seven’s leaders’ debate last Sunday evening, neither knew the answer. Sure, Dutton was dreaming with his guess of $4.20 (a price not paid since 2018), but Albanese’s estimate of $7 was still a way off the true price too.

While the prime minister did acknowledge that eggs are not only more expensive of late, but also harder to find, in failing to give the correct price and being off by almost 20 per cent, he and the opposition leader both highlighted they still didn’t fully understand the very real pain that grocery shopping has become.

Three years on, there have been so few big ideas presented from either party that we’re left with little else to discuss than the price of eggs.

This is where the criticism of those in the “don’t need to know” camp comes in. As much as politicians want us to believe they’re just like the rest of us, and as much as we like to think they are, it’s pretty unlikely that either the PM or the person hoping to be the next one can easily duck down to the shops for some bread and milk like we can.

Nor are they writing out a weekly meal plan or spending Sundays on a batch cook-up of freezer meals. To that extent, I can understand the criticism from people who say it shouldn’t matter whether senior politicians know the price of something down to the cent or not.

It’s also true that effective leaders don’t need to get bogged down in the weeds or minutiae of an issue; their job is to find a way out and implement a solution. In that sense, the debate question did feel like the kind of gotcha questions we’ve seen in previous elections to catch politicians out.

Albanese was clearly prepped in the hope of avoiding a repeat of his “gotcha” 2022 blunder, in which he infamously did not know the cash rate or the national unemployment figures on the first day of the campaign.

The validity, or lack thereof, of such questions was amplified at the time by Greens leader Adam Bandt, when he told a journalist asking him the wage price index to “Google it, mate” (and was met with laughs and applause).

Back then Bandt said: “Elections should be about a contest of ideas”; and that politics “should be about reaching for the stars and offering a better society. And instead, there are these questions that are asked … and those questions are designed to show that politicians are somehow out of touch and not representative of everyday people.”

Bandt may have been right, but the problem three years on is that there have been so few big ideas from either the Labor or Liberal party this time round that we’re left with little else to discuss than the price of a dozen eggs.

This election was also unique because it was dominated by cost-of-living issues, and that’s why I’d argue that, in the 2025 poll, being asked the cost of a basic pantry item isn’t so much a gotcha question as a vibe check on someone’s relationship to reality.

Neither leader was spot-on with their guesses over the price of a dozen eggs.Credit: Marija Ercegovac

An Essential poll published last week showed that cost of living ranked among the top three most important issues at the election for 81 per cent of Australians, and the single most important issue for 49 per cent of voters.

Combine that with Resolve polling that found 47 per cent of voters cited “a lack of action on the cost of living” as their main hesitation for voting Labor, and “a lack of policy detail” being the second-biggest hesitation for voting for Dutton, and we find ourselves at egg-gate.

In the 12 months from February 2024 to February 2025, the price of eggs rose roughly 12 per cent. Even before that, shoppers had to contend with grocery prices rising 24 per cent over a five-year period. At the same time, energy bills increased, mortgages and rent did likewise, visits to the doctor rose, as did many other things, all while wages failed to keep up.

Meanwhile, Albanese paid a cool $4.3 million for a property he doesn’t plan to live in any time soon, and it was revealed Dutton had failed to disclose a family trust he is a beneficiary of.

In this context, suddenly you realise that knowing – or not knowing – the price of eggs isn’t about eggs at all, it’s symbolic of a much bigger problem. And whether we like what we see or not, it really does tell you a lot about a person and their priorities.

Victoria Devine is an award-winning retired financial adviser, bestselling author and host of Australia’s No.1 finance podcast, She’s on the Money. She is also founder and director of Zella Money.

• Advice given in this article is general in nature and is not intended to influence readers’ decisions about investing or financial products. They should always seek their own professional advice that takes into account their own personal circumstances before making any financial decisions.

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