Fed: Xenophon slams grocery report

AAP General News (Australia)
08-06-2008
Fed: Xenophon slams grocery report

CANBERRA, Aug 6 AAP - Independent senator Nick Xenophon has slammed the consumer watchdog's
report into grocery prices, saying it does nothing to protect families and farmers from
supermarket giants.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which conducted a six-month
inquiry, found there was "workable competition" in the grocery retail sector.

It also said there was no evidence to support claims by farmers that retail prices
were going up while farm-gates prices declined or stagnated.

"The report does nothing to protect families or farmers from the big supermarket chains,"

Senator Xenophon said in a statement.

"The ACCC is fiddling while families burn cash."

Senator Xenophon rejected the commission's findings about competition among supermarkets.

"Coles and Safeway/Woolworths control nearly 80 per cent of the grocery market.

"There is no other democracy in the world where that would be allowed to happen.

"These chains have way too much power over farmers when they buy from them and way
too much power over families when they sell to them," he said.

The commission needed to explain what "workable competition" is in the market.

"Because it's not working for the farmers and for families."

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KEYWORD: GROCERY XENOPHON

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