Wednesday, 18 October 2023

Cost of living

Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (17:58): (518) My adjournment matter is for the Treasurer, and the action that I seek is that he introduce price controls on everyday supermarket items to stop price gouging and to ensure that essential food and other items are affordable to all Victorians. The Treasurer Comrade Pallas has had a lot of negative things to say whenever the Greens have called on the Labor government to directly address the cost-of-living crisis and help struggling Victorians, but I think Comrade Pallas and others in this place may be a little confused about our point of view, so I just thought I would spend some time now explaining it.

Profits have gone up for the supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths, and with prices rising at an alarming rate at the check-out, many people are left asking, ‘How do profits increase when price hikes on groceries are being blamed on inflation or supply costs?’ We hear about inflation all the time, yet absurd price increases due to and above the rate of inflation have a real-world impact on people. That impact matters far more than scare tactics around command economies that you label us with in this place simply for wanting reasonable action. That is what we care about: the real-world impact that this has on people. I have mentioned this before, but the Greens conducted a survey, and of the 1200-odd people, around 70 per cent of those respondents reported that their mental health has been negatively impacted by cost-of-living pressures, with food affordability being one of the main struggles that they have faced.

When the people we represent are struggling to this degree, the government has a responsibility to step in. If Victorians cannot afford basic grocery items because the cost is far beyond what people can reasonably afford whilst the private companies make billions in profit and implement extremely concerning surveillance practices, what is the point of the government if not to step in and regulate it? It is clear you cannot trust a private business in charge of delivering an essential good to do the right thing without regulation. Even Labor agrees with that. We have the Essential Services Commission and the Victorian default offer and even the proposed return of the SEC – many examples of regulation on what are considered essential services. Now, I think most people would agree that food is an essential service and that people should be able to afford basic grocery items. Regulation is not a new idea, and even today Canada has announced that they are intervening in the industry to try and bring down the cost of groceries to ‘make life more affordable for Canadians’. So when the Greens are calling for intervention, for price controls, for an inquiry, it is because we want to ensure this service is accessible and affordable for everyone, because we know what happens when it is not.