The federal government says it supports fines of up to 10 per cent of Coles' and Woolworths' annual revenue if they are found to be mistreating suppliers, as it begins to move on the supermarket giants.
The government has given in-principle support to recommendations for massive fines and a mandatory code of conduct for the supermarket giants.Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the government wants to pursue a proposed multi-million-dollar penalty regime for the supermarket sector if grocers such as Coles and Woolworths engage in anti-competitive behaviour.
"What we're talking about here is making the code compulsory, having big penalties for people who do the wrong thing, getting the dispute resolution right, so farmers and suppliers can't be dudded," Mr Chalmers said. In a statement, Coles said it was proud to be a founding signatory to the voluntary industry code, but did not weigh into the recommendations.
Dr Emerson in his interim findings said break-up powers were not a credible way to improve competition in the supermarket sector — though the matter was outside the scope of the review.Former Labor minister Craig Emerson has told the government it should not force large supermarkets to sell off stores, but should fine them if they mistreat suppliers.
Mr Littleproud said the industry-developed code of conduct had delivered "three-fifths of bugger all", and that imposing penalties would do little to deter supermarket giants which could "pull it out of a till of one of their stores any day of the week".Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume said there was "always concern" with divestiture powers about whether they would actually decrease prices in the same way fines did.
"A targeted divestment power is also necessary because otherwise consumers are going to be taken advantage of by anti-competitive conduct by the big supermarkets," Senator Paterson said.
Woolworths Supermarkets Grocers Craig Emerson Accc Cost Of Living
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