As it happened: ACCC puts ‘most profitable supermarkets in the world’ on notice; Heathrow Airport closes after substation fire

Thanks for reading the national news blog. This is where we’ll end today’s coverage.

To conclude, here’s a look back at the day’s major stories:

• A damning inquiry into Australian supermarkets dominated our blog coverage today, as Coles and Woolworths defended themselves against ACCC findings they have an “entrenched position in an oligopolistic market”.
• Labor and the Coalition traded blows following the release of the ACCC’s findings, particularly when it came to the opposition’s pitch for supermarket divestiture to strike fear into retailers.
• Opposition Leader Peter Dutton vowed to continue pursuing divestiture, while Labor argued the ACCC report includes “no suggestion” the idea would deliver better outcomes for farmers or consumers.
• Australian flights were among those diverted and cancelled after Britain’s Heathrow Airport closed when an electrical substation fire knocked out its power.
• Treasurer Jim Chalmers says Australians can expect his fourth budget to be similar to his first three, as he prepares to send the documents to the printers at the weekend before delivering the federal budget on Tuesday.
• In NSW, a third Sydney mosque in as many weeks has been the subject of online threats referencing the 2019 Christchurch massacre, with police believing two of the incidents are linked.
• Victoria tightened its bail laws following a late-night parliamentary debate, making freedom less likely for home invaders, carjackers and robbers, and removing the need for the justice system to consider remand as a last resort.
• In business news, Nine Entertainment, the publisher of this masthead, confirmed it is in talks to sell its 60 per cent stake in Domain to US group CoStar.

Thanks again for joining us. This is Cassandra Morgan, signing off.

A Qantas flight has been cancelled following the closure of London’s Heathrow Airport, while passengers on diverted flights are set to be bussed into the city.

The QF1 and QF9 services departing Sydney and Perth on Friday (local times) are scheduled to operate as normal to London.

The London Fire Brigade said around 70 firefighters were tackling the substation blaze in the west of London.Credit: Twitter

However, Friday’s QF10 flight from London to Perth has been cancelled and customers will be put on other flights, Qantas said.

The cancellation follows the airport’s closure due to a nearby electrical substation fire.

Friday’s QF2 London to Singapore flight will also likely be impacted, the airline said.

“Our Singapore-London and Perth-London services were diverted to Paris today, with buses arranged to take customers on to London,” a spokesperson for the airline said.

“Our teams are working hard to support impacted customers and we thank them for their patience.”

Customers will be contacted directly if their flight is affected.

Supermarkets would be celebrating, rather than sweating on, the findings of a damning ACCC report, the regulator’s former chair Allan Fels says.

Speaking to ABC Afternoon Briefing, Fels said the report lacked ambition to a degree, offering a “little bit for everyone” but nothing too major, including no big demands on the government to act.

Former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Allan Fels.Credit: Nikki Short

“It is not too bad for Coles and Woolies because there are no major actions proposed against them,” Fels said.

The report found that Woolworths and Coles, which together hold 67 per cent market share, are some of the most profitable grocery giants in the world and enjoy a position of dominance likely to continue into the future.

“It will have some marginal positive effects for consumers, there will be a bit more information about prices, a tiny easing on planning restrictions – [but] dramatic effect, no,” Fels said.

“But I am concerned at the way the profit margins and product margins have been drifting up all the time.

“The scrutiny of them has some effect. The use of public opinion has some slight effect, but I am afraid when you go to your supermarket tomorrow, you will not see any resulting price reduction.”

It was a good thing that the ACCC – a serious, independent authority – confirmed what people already knew: that there was no strong supermarket competition, Fels said.

“As for the mindset of the retailers, I am certain they are having drinks right now celebrating the end of the inquiry, and now they are free to resume a charging as they wish,” he said.

“They are not sweating it, they’re even celebrating it.

“The price – they copped a tiny bit of extra regulation, slightly stronger position for the suppliers, but that was before the inquiry – nothing more.”

Jetstar’s operations have returned to normal after ash caused by Mount Lewotobi in Indonesia earlier disrupted six flights.

“We’re monitoring the situation and at this stage, based on current forecasts, our afternoon flights are scheduled to operate as normal,” a spokesperson for the airline said.

Jetstar has returned to normal operations after Mount Lewotobi disrupted flights. Credit: Eddie Jim

The carrier will update passenger if there are further changes, the spokesperson said.

Virgin Australia also delayed flights to Bali after news of the eruption broke but the affected flights are in the process of leaving.

“Virgin Australia’s meteorologists are closely monitoring ash cloud movement in Indonesia following the eruption of Mount Lewotobi overnight,” a spokesman said.

The airline directed customers travelling to and from Bali to monitor their flight information on the Virgin Australia website and app.

Claims the ACCC delivered Labor a politically palatable supermarkets report are a “shocking slur” against the independent regulator, assistant competition minister Andrew Leigh says.

Speaking on ABC Afternoon Briefing, Leigh said Littleproud was “spitting the dummy” because the report did not recommend divestiture powers.

Nationals leader David Littleproud.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Littleproud earlier said the final report of the ACCC supermarket inquiry showed it was designed for a government about to go to an election.

“The difference between David Littleproud and Labor is we’re interested in solutions that work, he is interested in slogans,” Leigh said.

“The mandatory supermarket code, which Labor put in place, was voted against by the Liberals and Nationals. David Littleproud and his mates set up a voluntary toothless code of conduct and that is what they wanted to continue.

“It took Labor to put in place a code with multimillion-dollar penalties over the votes of the Liberals and Nationals.”

When asked whether Littleproud was right to suggest supermarkets needed the fear of the “big stick” of divestiture powers to make real change, Leigh said: “He’s all hat and no cattle.

“The fact is the divestiture powers are rarely used around the rest of the world and a big stick that sits in the shed isn’t going to have very much impact on what you do,” Leigh said.

“We are focused here on the measures that will make a difference for Australians.”

Returning to news of Heathrow Airport’s closure after a fire at an electrical substation, travel experts expect the disruption to extend far beyond the airport.

Heathrow is one of the busiest two-runway airports in the world with about 1300 combined take-offs and landings a day, according to its website.

Airlines’ carefully choreographed networks depend on planes and crews being in specific locations at specific times. Dozens of air carriers will have to hurriedly reconfigure their networks to move planes and crews around.

“The other question is, ‘What will airlines do to deal with the backlog of passengers?’ ” travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt, of Atmosphere Research Group, said. “It’s going to be a chaotic couple of days.”

A Heathrow spokesperson told Reuters that there was no clarity on when power would be restored to the airport, and they expected significant disruption over the coming days.

On the ground in London, a number of homes and businesses were without power.

“Firefighters have led 29 people to safety from neighbouring properties, and as a precaution, a 200-metre cordon has been established, with around 150 people evacuated,” the fire brigade said.

Reuters

A third Sydney mosque in as many weeks has been the subject of online threats referencing the 2019 Christchurch massacre, with police believing two of the incidents are linked.

TikTok user named wello yesterday commented on a United Muslims of Australia video featuring a Padstow mosque, saying “can’t wait till this place gets the Christchurch treatment”, in what appeared to reference the 2019 massacre of 51 Muslims at prayer in the New Zealand city.

NSW Premier Chris Minns.Credit: Steven Siewert

It came a day after the same TikTok user commented “Christchurch again please” on a time-lapse video posted by the Lakemba Mosque account. Later in the comments, he claimed he lived in Silverwater prison.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said he was appalled by the discovery of the latest threat.

“I can only imagine what members of Muslim communities are going through who are in the middle of Ramadan, maybe celebrating iftar ... the last thing they need to do is deal with this kind of odious racism,” he said on Friday.

“Where there’s been these threats, actions have taken place, arrests have been made, charges have been laid against those individuals.”

The Alliance of Australian Muslims, Australian National Imams Council, Lebanese Muslim Association, and United Muslims of Australia condemned the latest threats in a joint statement.

“The Muslim community is once again left feeling unsafe, with many fearing for their safety while gathering in places of worship during its holiest month and peak days. This wave of Islamophobia not only threatens individuals but also undermines the fabric of social harmony in Australia.”

Two weeks ago a Western Australian teenager was charged after he allegedly threatened to “christ church 2.0” in an Instagram comment directed towards the newly opened Australian Islamic House Masjid in Edmondson Park.

He remains before the courts.

With AAP

Esso Australia and its US parent company ExxonMobil have withdrawn plans to store carbon pollution in undersea cavities in the Gippsland Basin.

The Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) welcomed the decision, which it said was proof of carbon capture and storage’s “unviability”.

ExxonMobil’s West Tuna gas platform off Gippsland in Victoria.Credit: ExxonMobil

“In this coming federal budget AMCS calls on the Australian government to stop the taxpayer funded subsidies to carbon pollution dumping CCS proposals in our ocean,” fossil fuel campaign manager Louise Morris said.

“It is a proven failure and poses unacceptable risks to coastal communities, the climate and marine environment.”

Under the plan, Esso sought to repurpose oil and gas rigs that had reached the end of their life into carbon storage facilities. The carbon would be stored in the voids left from oil and gas mining.

ExxonMobil subsidiary Esso Australia operates the Gippsland Basin Joint Venture, which supplies about 40 per cent of eastern Australia’s natural gas use, on behalf of a 50-50 joint venture with Woodside Energy.

But as the Bass Strait venture comes to the end of its lifespan, Exxon has moved much of the venture into decommissioning, by announcing plans to bring 12 “topsides” from oil and gas rigs to shore in 2027.

The company wants to cut the gas and oil platforms at 55 metres below sea level, bring the top parts of the platforms to shore and leave the bases in place.

The Coalition will continue pursuing its supermarket divestiture proposal even after the ACCC made no recommendation for it in a damning report.

Speaking in Tasmania, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the Coalition had been very clear in that it was “on the side of mums and dads who have been paying 30 per cent more for their groceries under this government”.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.Credit: Bloomberg

He said the hit to Australians’ hip pockets was not “all the fault” of Coles and Woolworths, but also the fault of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Energy Minister Chris Bowen.

“When you look at … supplying product into a supermarket or into a bottle shop, there is a big cost of cold storage; and on farm, the cost of electricity has gone up by 40 per cent,” Dutton said.

“We were at a business in NSW the other day, their electricity bill has gone up, believe this or not, by $40,000 a month, $480,000 a year.

“So the farm electricity bill has gone up under Labor, the cold storage electricity bill has gone up under Labor, and all that is being passed on.”

The supermarket giants had to answer for price increases, but the “bad government” in Canberra was driving up costs, Dutton said.

The answer to the question of whether the Coalition would still pursue divestiture was “yes”, Dutton said. “But the government has squibbed it yet again, which is what we expected from this government,” he said.

Flights have been diverted from Heathrow Airport after an electrical substation fire forced its closure.

At least 120 flights in the air bound for the London airport would have to land elsewhere because of the closure, according to Flightradar24.

Qantas was sending its flight from Perth to Paris instead, and a United Airlines New York flight was heading to Shannon, Ireland.

Another Qantas flight, connecting passengers from Sydney to Heathrow via Singapore, was meant to arrive at the airport within hours, but has also been diverted to Paris.

Two Qantas flights meant to depart London today, QF2 to Sydney and QF10 to Perth, were also set to be impacted.

As we reported earlier, Heathrow Airport will be closed until midnight local time, but further disruption is expected in the coming days.

You can read more here.

With Reuters