Australian PM lures voters with supermarket crackdown

SYDNEY

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised on Sunday to outlaw supermarket price gouging with the threat of heavy fines, ahead of a tightly fought May 3 general election.

The supermarket crackdown and a surprise income tax cut are among a string of government proposals to ease the cost of living, which voters consistently cite as a top concern.

Surveys show the center-left government and conservative opposition running neck-and-neck in the election race.

"Australians deserve a fair go at the checkout. We will hold the big supermarket chains to account," Albanese told reporters, promising to introduce legislation this year.

Asked how abuses would be addressed, he promised "heavy fines to make sure that they know that if they're ripping people off, then they're in the gun to pay a heavy penalty."

The government would set up a task force with representatives from the Treasury, competition regulators and consumer groups to decide on action, Albanese said.

Australia was looking at overseas examples of regulating unfair pricing, he said, including in Britain and the European Union.

Australia has one of the most concentrated grocery sectors in the world, with big players Coles and Woolworths enjoying considerable power to set prices for consumers and suppliers.

Competition regulators said in a report this month that the two companies enjoyed growing profit margins and had "limited incentive to compete vigorously with each other on price."

Annual consumer price inflation was 2.4 percent in the final quarter of 2024, after peaking at 7.8 percent in 2022.