Queensland's Greens propose a plan to cap prices on 30 essential grocery items such as bread, milk, eggs and nappies ahead of the October state election.
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HOW IT WORKS:
* Under the Greens proposal a newly established Fair Prices Authority would determine a final list of items to be capped
* Prices for each of the 30 items would be capped at January 1, 2024 levels and indexed each year based on wages
* The authority would determine the list of 30 items based on a basic essentials list similar to the "basket of goods" used to calculate CPI
* Price caps would apply to all retail giants with total sales of more than $3 billion per year in Queensland
* It would require them to offer at least one product in each of the 30 categories of essential items at a capped price across all Queensland stores
WHAT THEY SAID
* "The government can and should directly intervene by capping grocery prices to bring down the cost of Queenslanders' groceries." - Queensland Greens MP Amy MacMahon
* "Coles and Woolies have so much power because we have the most highly concentrated supermarket sector in the world. Smashing up the duopoly would bring prices down." - Queensland Greens candidate Katinka Winston-Allom
* "Who would've thought it was possible for a party to have more simplistic, populist policies than the LNP (opposition)." - Queensland Premier Steven Miles
* "It doesn't get around the central problem that we're still going to be putting this downward pressure on prices ... you'll still run the same risk of creating shortages." - Griffith University economics expert Nicholas Rohde
COST OF LIVING
* Research by comparative service Finder found:
- the number of Australians struggling to afford groceries has more than doubled over the last four years
- 3.7 million Australian households nominate their grocery bill as one of their major financial stressors
- Australians are paying 12 per cent more for groceries now compared to 2022
- The cost of breakfast cereals, bread, cheese, eggs and milk have all jumped between 22 and 25 per cent in four years
- Poultry is up 15 per cent and fruit has risen by 14 per cent since 2020
- The average wage has grown only roughly eight per cent across Australia since 2020
Australian Associated Press
