Adjournment – Supermarket Prices

My adjournment is for the Minister for Planning, and the action I seek is for the minister to investigate anti-competitive behaviour by the supermarket duopoly Woolworths and Coles, including land banking tactics, and whether state planning laws are restricting competition in the supermarket industry, which ultimately results in higher prices for consumers at the check-out. […]

Regulatory Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2023

I rise to speak on behalf of the Victorian Greens to the Regulatory Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2023. As has been canvassed by previous speakers, this is an omnibus bill that seeks to reform regulatory legislation across 14 acts and 10 ministerial portfolios. According to the second-reading speech, the purpose of the bill is to […]

Cost of Living – Adjournment

My adjournment matter is for the Assistant Treasurer as the minister responsible for the Essential Services Commission, and the action I seek is for the minister to regulate supermarkets to stop them from price gouging. Supermarkets have been putting up the price of food and essentials, making the cost of living worse. Victorians are struggling […]

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee Report on the 2023–24 Budget Estimates

I rise to speak to the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee’s Report on the 2023–24 Budget Estimates. The report quite rightly makes a number of references to inflation and just the significant impacts that high inflation is having on individuals, households and the broader Victorian economy: that the state’s inflation is being driven by price […]

Editorial – Food Price Controls

Exactly fifty years ago the Australian government held a different referendum.  That time, in 1973, the Whitlam government held a referendum giving the Federal Parliament the power to control prices in order to tackle runaway inflation that was driving up the cost-of-living.  Up until then, price controls had been used exclusively by the states following […]