Thanks for doing nothing for consumers in 09 Mr Rudd

Jode says:

05:14am | 23/12/09

Lets keep it simple - rudd please deliver results and ease up on the spin factor.

ps: Remember u are the PM of australia not the head of the UN….

Wayne Hutchins says:

05:20am | 23/12/09

Sorry but Minister Emerson is an illiterate joke. He reminds me of the bumbling “Uncle Arthur” from the old comedy company. Buck passing should become a new sport in this country. Krudd is the record holder for the best buck passes since sweeping his way into office 2007. The buck stops here is just such a too easy throw away line during an election. It’s time we made the buck stick…

Paul says:

05:55am | 23/12/09

Thankyou for your dedication to this issue this year Frank! Choice seems to have gone quiet? I presume that in some uncompetitive suburbs, this situation would act as a ‘poor tax’, heavily impacting low income earners, single parents and pensioners. Especially when it’s likely to be the double whammy of inflated prices of food and petrol - usually our two biggest cost items to our budget. What’s your take on this and areas that are particularly hit hard. I saw estimates that we will spend $8 billion on food over Christmas. If we are being overcharged 5-10% we are paying an extra $400-800 million. Are my assumptions roughly right on this Frank? (Another ‘tax’ thanks to Howard and Rudd.)

T.Chong says:

06:59am | 23/12/09

To all you Right Punchers > Who said acadeamia is the haunt of Lefties.?
No Australian govt of the 21st century is ever going to take on any part of big business.  Does anyone seriosly think the Libs are going to make big business of any type more accountable?
Fellow rural socialist B. Joyce had a vague lefty rant about breaking up the banking sector. Abbott and Co quickly shut him up on that one.
Capitalist societies are becoming increasingly oligarchial, but isnt that what capitalism is all about?- Increasing market share and out doing your competitors ?

persephone says:

08:14am | 23/12/09

Well, I don’t know. Keeping them in jobs when the rest of the world were losing theirs wasn’t bad for consumers, was it?

And both interest rates and petrol prices went down, so that wasn’t bad either.

And consumers can access government rebates on solar hot water and home insulation.

I’m sure there’s others I can’t think about at present.

I’m a glass half full kind of person.

Liz says:

08:26am | 23/12/09

Well it appears the Biggies are worried about their financial analysts getting the trends wrong.As more people shop at farmers’ markets,local shops and abandon the high prices,poor quality and milesof travel we’ll all get better value and quality.Regardless of what the Government does, nothing like a population taking things into their own hands.

Sahara says:

08:32am | 23/12/09

Blah blah blah. Competition exists ion the supermarket industry. There’s Franklins, Aldi, IGA , Foodworks/Drake, as well as a few other state based enterprises.

Nobody shops there. I’ll be at a shopping centre this afternoon that has Coles, Woolworths and Aldi stores almost next to each other. Both Coles and Woolworths will be packed all day but you could shoot a shotgun in Aldi and not hit anyone. It will be deserted as it is every other day of the year. Despite over ten years in Australia Aldi have managed to make only a small dent in market share.

Australian shoppers show their support every day for Coles and Woolworths by not spending their money elsewhere. They do have choice and they exercise it every time they shop. The writer of this article just doesn’t like the choice they make

Nicki says:

09:10am | 23/12/09

Frank Zumbo, can you tell me of one government that did something good for the consumers?

AdamC says:

09:28am | 23/12/09

This is the third Frank Zumbo article about the Coles/Woolies supermarket duopoly that I have read. In each of them, Frank rails against the biggies’ market clout and insists the government take ‘action’. But what action?

In previous articles, Frank mentioned restrictive lease covenants imposed by Coles and Woolies on their landlords. But getting rid of these won’t seriously affect the duopoly. Likewise, some kind of imposed national pricing scheme (allowing a website like GroceryChoices to work effectively) will simply create a system of regional winners and losers, not lower prices overall.

In this article Frank notes the obvious benefits of having competitors to the Big two. Unsurprisingly, we need more of them. But how do we encourage this competition? I genuinely would like to know!

Aitch B says:

09:56am | 23/12/09

@Nicki
Gough Whitlam, 1973….. Prices Justification Tribunal.

It even worked!

DWest says:

10:54am | 23/12/09

@adam an organisation with teeth that small businesses can take complaints of anti-competitive behaviour to. Labor and the Liberals can start with real pro- small business policies, action, and accountability.

John A Neve says:

10:57am | 23/12/09

The government does not need to do anything. The public just has to shop elsewhere.

If you don’t like the product, the service or the price, don’t whinge, just find a store that suits your needs. How simple is that?

T.Chong says:

11:18am | 23/12/09

Liz::  The touchy feely world of “farmers markets” - all goo,though I cant see why so many people seem to be against people whos jobs and income are derived from transporting produce - truck drivers and related industries, and those who get lousy pay selling the produce via retail - shop assistants et al. It aint these peoples fault what the big retailers pay and charge.
Farmers markets do these people out of jobs, while coles and wooly share holders keep on gaining.

Steve of Cornubia says:

11:50am | 23/12/09

@John A Neve: the problem is, when you decide your usual Woolworths or Coles isn’t price competitive, your only alternative is….Woolworths or Coles. The other ‘supermarkets’ in Australia (i.e. IGA, Foodworks, Aldi) are actually nice businesses and do not compete directly with The Big Two.

In the UK, there are many more big supermarkets and the level of competition is much fiercer, resulting in better prices and better services for customers. The UK also has a fully-functioning ‘grocery watch’ system.

There is no reason other than weakness and vested interest on part of our pollies for this shocking state of affairs.

Rudd deserves criticism for this because he made increased competition thru Grocery Watch a key promise in his election campaign.

AdamC says:

12:30pm | 23/12/09

Dwest, beefing up the regulator won’t make any difference. The problem is not that the duopoly engage in illegal market abuse. The problem is that Coles and Woolies are too big, with the scale and market power to undercut smaller competitors.

Competition regulation isn’t about protecting competitors, it is about getting the best outcomes for consumers. Ideally, we would have a grocery market in which big players with scale and sophicticated supply chains can keep costs low, but also a market with enough competitive dynamism that big players can’t just use those cost advantages to beef up their own margins, rather than provide low prices to shoppers.

How do we get there, though? That is the challenge!

leonora says:

12:40pm | 23/12/09

Why is it that the name T.Chong always seems to have The East is Red playing in the background?

Farmers’ markets are a great way for the people who grow the stuff to get it to the consumers, fresh and more cheaply.  They are not a capitalist plot to remove work from union members.

The big supermarkets are said to screw their farmer (and other) suppliers, and it’s great that we can buy direct from the people who produce our food and make sure they get a few more cents for their year’s work.

Darren says:

01:08pm | 23/12/09

@T chong You need to go and speak to some farmers before you make up your own touchy feely facts. And ask what sort of middleman margin the farmers are putting into their families pocket. And google the number of farmers markets in Australia and globally.

H of SA says:

02:47pm | 23/12/09

Letter writing folks, when you actually POST a letter to your member or minister Emerson then it creates a whole bunch of work for their staff, so eventually the message gets through.

You can bet caucus will discuss it if they get a whole heap of letters to - and that means cabinet will discuss it, and that means regulation - which is exactly what woolies and coles don’t want.

This is democracy and e-mails don’t force action like letters do.

harquebus says:

02:54pm | 23/12/09

Those with the gold make the rules.

South Aussie says:

03:04pm | 23/12/09

persephone says:09:14am | 23/12/09

Well, I don’t know. Keeping them in jobs when the rest of the world were losing theirs wasn’t bad for consumers, was it?

And both interest rates and petrol prices went down, so that wasn’t bad either.

And consumers can access government rebates on solar hot water and home insulation.

I’m sure there’s others I can’t think about at present.

I’m a glass half full kind of person.

What has any of that got to do with anything in the article? Even though petrol was mentioned in the article, its wasn’t in the context of what you were alluring to. (plus as the petrol price went down due to the world oil price, which the government has nothing to do with, like interest rates).

Frank Zumbo wrote:
The petrol industry is yet another example of spin and deflection. The ACCC alerted us to the problem of “price coordination” between the oil majors back in December 2007 and even made legislative recommendations to try to deal with the problem.

This was regarding the petrol companies colluding on raising prices on days which consumers are most likely to need petrol, for example the Thursday before the Easter holiday. It has nothing to do with the actual price of petrol.

If you don’t want to write down “Yes, Rudd did say he would keep downward pressure on grocery prices and make sure the petrol companies weren’t ripping people off, and he hasn’t”, which is what the article was about, then that is fine.

But making comments on topics which are completely irrelevant to the topic at hand and spinning them in favour of your own personal allegiance not only makes you sound deluded about the Rudd government, it makes you sound like Kevin Rudd.

persephone says:

05:47pm | 23/12/09

Well, since Zumbo’s concentrating on the negatives, you wouldn’t expect a list of positives to have anything to do with the article, would you?

And what Rudd wanted to do on petrol prices was blocked by the Liberals.

And writing an article on consumers losing out and not pointing out that that’s at least in part due to the actions of the Opposition makes Zumbo sound like a Liberal.

Nicki says:

05:54pm | 23/12/09

@ Atich,B.
In 1973 I wasn’t born.
I don’t care much about archeology I am interested on my times.

Artforartssake says:

07:26pm | 23/12/09

sorry but the Coles/Woolies so-called duoploy is a big fat MYTH.

There’s Aldi and Franklins, IGA and hundreds of Seven Eleven, Night Owl and corner grocer stores and fruiterers in every street of every city and town in the country.

Even Discount Chemists sell a range of healthcare and personal hygiene prods in direct competition with Coles/Woolies.

So please get off the backs of Coles & Woolies. They both provide a wide range of prods at reasonable prices, convenient shopping times and locations and a host of other services like cash-out, home delivery, reward programs etc.

They provide good returns for shareholders, pay lotsa tax to the govt and employ thousands of Australians directly and indirectly.

Concentrate on govt waste and mismanagement rather than continually trying to unfairly accuse these two great Aussie companies of ripping off consumers.

Daniel says:

08:03pm | 23/12/09

I agree with you Frank.Rudd has done nothing for consumers in 2009. He has not done anything about the obscene monopoly that Coles and Woolworths has on nearly all aspects of Australian lives.

Glen says:

12:26am | 24/12/09

You think that krudd will look after the citizens of Australia?  You must be dreaming.

South Aussie says:

01:42am | 24/12/09

Persephone

If the Rudd government doesn’t want it’s policies blocked it should submit policies actually worth passing. I expect my government not to believe that just trying is good enough. And they weren’t blocked only by theLiberals.

You’re also more than welcome to list some positives for consumers that have come from Rudd government policies. Nobody has been able to do that yet.

persephone says:

08:16am | 24/12/09

I did.

Paul says:

08:19am | 24/12/09

@artforartsake We’ve just had another petrol station open in our small town -bringing the number of petrol outlets to 4 - breaking a retail stranglehold and suddenly the price has down consistently by 9c a litre for 2 months. City prices hip hooray! Competitive markets work dude!  Look outside your own suburb /town. Monopolies / duopolies is big businesses holy grail, sacred religion and where the fat cashcow layeth.

South Aussie says:

10:46am | 24/12/09

Persephone

No you didn’t.

Max says:

04:04pm | 24/12/09

@Persephone: Actually petrol prices have gone up considerably.  Before the GFC the AUD was low (about US0.75) crude oil prices were high ($140/barrell) and petrol was about $1.30/L.  Now the AUD is over USD0.90 and crude oil is $75/barrell but fuel is still $1.20/L.

Rudd didn’t do much to stop unemployment - we were just fortunate to be in a good economic position with a stable mortgage sector.  You can probably thank the RBA for that.

Rudd didn’t do anything to lower interest rates, the fact that they are low is simply because the RBA was scared the property house of cards would fall down.  Again you can thank them for the lower rates (on hugely overpriced property).

Government stimulus packages are not a gift, they’re a loan taken out from China in your name.  You may have gotten $900 and some free insulation - but, assuming you have a job, you’ll be paying back the principle plus interest with your taxes for many years to come.