Two brekkie rolls, coffees: Anthony Albanese’s $53 wake-up call

In the old days, gouging of ordinary people would have been known as daylight robbery. But now everywhere voters go there is evidence of a cost-of-living crisis.

Beechworth Bakery assistant manager Jackie Ross. Picture: Ian Currie

A couple wandering into an ­ordinary country cafe on the outer edges of Victoria’s Yarra Ranges can expect to pay $53 for two breakfast rolls and a cup of coffee each.

Walk into the wrong joint on the Australian coastline and one toasted sandwich can set you back $15 – tomato extra.

A tent site for two with a view of the Goulburn River in northeastern Victoria? That will be $55. And those roof racks to carry your dreams? There will be no change out of $350, thanks.

Anthony Albanese talks at great lengths about the path to low inflation, but this holiday road is lined with 12.5 per cent surcharges and trouble for voters ­trying to make memories and meet budgets.

In the old days, gouging of ordinary people would have been known as daylight robbery, but not even the Kelly Gang could seem so bold, with costs fuelled by $2-a-litre petrol.

With an election imminent, this is the Prime Minister’s cost-of-living reality as millions prepare to vote in the knowledge that the evidence is incontrovertible.

Australia’s holiday prices are Himalaya high and the great summer break is becoming unachievable for many.

Even the fiscal safety of a bakery will leave a bill of $14.20 for a chicken caesar wrap or $14.80 for a BLT – bacon, lettuce and tomato – and $19 for a pack of four lamingtons. A $6.90 pie is the last refuge for the battler.

Jackie Ross, assistant manager at the Beechworth Bakery in Healesville, where a bargain can still be had, said that despite prices going up they tried to keep the cost to customers low compared with their competitors.

“If you look around the area you can see we’re cheaper than everyone else,” Ms Ross said.

The bakery also runs a loyalty program that she said helped customers save a bit of money, when perhaps they needed it most.

Emma Debono noticed the dear cost of holidaying when visiting friend Jennifer Vermeulen in the Victorian food-and-wine tourism town of Healesville, 64km northeast of Melbourne.

In one cafe on the main street a BLT cost $22.

Healesville resident Jennifer Vermeulen, left, and friend Emma Debono at a cafe in town on Monday. Picture: Ian Currie

“I feel like compared to back in the day when it wasn’t as expensive, you aren’t able to have as many holidays,” Ms Debono said.

“But now you’ve got to space it out a bit more and be conscious of how you’re spending your money.”

Ms Vermeulen lives in Healesville and said she noticed the ­expensive prices living in a tourist destination.

“I definitely think – especially (in) little country towns like this being popular and touristy – the price of accommodation here is insane. Even little cafes charge an arm and a leg for just something basic,” Ms Vermeulen said.

It seems only the wealthiest Australians, who probably already know how they will vote, can escape the cost-of-living curse. But even they’re doing it “tough”, as top-tier private school fees leap to well over $40,000-a-year and a year at Timbertop will burn through $90,000 of grandpa’s superannuation.

Labor’s tiger country in Queensland is enduring the same pressures and so is northern NSW, where Byron Bay’s The Pass Cafe charges $30 for a serve of smashed avocado on bread.

The Gather cafe in Yamba, south of Byron, is only 30 seconds from the beach and charges $17 for a breakfast roll and $4.80 for a coffee. If you visit on the weekend, however, you can expect a surcharge of 12.5 per cent, increasing the cost for two breakfast rolls and coffees to $49.

Bargara, just east of Bundaberg and 360km north of Brisbane, offers visitors beachfront scenery but at a price that reflects the national trend, telling a similar story that makes you want to head for the baked beans aisle.

A breakfast burger from a beachside cafe in Bargara also goes for $20.50, while a latte is $4.50, making breakfast for two a $50 endeavour.

It’s enough to leave the kids behind.

It’s reasonable to ask, of course, whether businesses are the victims or the profiteers, after years of soaring costs and the long pandemic hangover.

No-one has to shop at these places unless, like Victoria’s Marysville before Christmas, everything else is shut, as it often can be in staff-starved country Australia, where business owners have one, or maybe two, big holiday season chances to make cash.