Food

scroll, side, turn the page-1019916.jpg scroll, side, turn the page-1019916.jpg

The non-confidential written submissions on the ACCC’s Issues Paper for its Supermarkets Inquiry 2024-25 are now available here. Most of the submissions were from industry organisations and supermarkets. However, there were several consumer focused submissions including one from CFA (which several members signed onto) and individual submissions by the following CFA members: CHOICE, Combined Pensioners…

Read More ACCC Publishes Supermarkets Inquiry Submissions

scroll, side, turn the page-1019916.jpg scroll, side, turn the page-1019916.jpg

The Honourable Amanda Rishworth beamed into the recent annual Financial Counselling Australia conference in Perth a day after the budget announcement with some welcome news for the financial counselling sector. The Government will invest around $23 million over four years and ongoing, to provide more pre-crisis and early intervention supports, taking the total recent additional…

Read More Increased Funding for Financial Crisis and Early Intervention Support

jar, glass, lid-576694.jpg jar, glass, lid-576694.jpg

The 2024 Federal Budget provides $1.5 million over 2 years from 2023-24 for the Government to work with industry and regulatory agencies to improve existing arrangements and, in parallel, undertake independent consumer research to understand the extent of any consumer confusion in relation to plant-based and alternative protein labelling. The Department of Agriculture Fisheries and…

Read More Budget Funds $1.5m for Labelling of Plant-Based and Alternative Protein

announce, marketing, attention-3192838.jpg announce, marketing, attention-3192838.jpg

The 14 recommendations of a Senate Select Committee inquiry into supermarket prices included several aimed at increasing the transparency of retail grocery prices for consumers. These recommendations included (in Recommendation 9 ) that: The Australian Government amend the Unit Pricing Code made under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, so that supermarkets are required to:…

Read More Senate Supermarket Inquiry Recommends Grocery Price Transparency

cost, board, finance-1174922.jpg cost, board, finance-1174922.jpg

New research from CHOICE has revealed 4 in 5 CHOICE supporters think it’s unfair for supermarkets to charge higher prices for customers who don’t sign up for loyalty programs.  The survey of over 8,000 CHOICE supporters also found nearly half of respondents were worried about the data being collected about them through loyalty programs. The…

Read More Supermarket Loyalty Programs: The Price Isn’t Right

Ian Jarratt of the Queensland Consumers Association in a supermarket with unit price labels in the background

The Queensland Consumers Association (QCA) is calling for the inquiries into supermarkets now being undertaken by a Senate Select Committee, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and a Queensland Parliament Select Committee to recommend improvements to the clarity of supermarket pricing. In submissions to each inquiry, the QCA says improvements are essential in order…

Read More Advocates Call For Supermarket Inquiries to Recommend Clearer Pricing

money, the grace of, scales-2033591.jpg money, the grace of, scales-2033591.jpg

As a provider of education, advocacy, and financial counselling services to people across North and Far North Queensland, ICAN recently provided a submission to the Inquiry into Supermarket Pricing in Queensland. Our submission focused on the significant price differences people experience when shopping depending on whether they are based in metropolitan Queensland or remote and…

Read More The Price Is Not Right: ICAN’s Queensland Supermarket Submission

Logos for Consumers' Federation of Australia, Queensland Consumers Association, Consumers SA, Financial Counselling Australia, Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network, CHOICE, Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association

Last week the Consumers’ Federation of Australia (CFA) along with member organisations CHOICE, Queensland Consumers Association (QCA), Financial Counselling Australia (FCA), Consumers SA (South Australia), the Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association (CPSA) and the Indigenous Consumers Assistance Network submitted our joint group submission to the 2024-25 ACCC Supermarket Inquiry. Generally, the submission calls for the…

Read More Joint Submission to the ACCC Supermarket Inquiry

Post thumbnail

The Supermarket Pricing Select Committee wishes to advise that they have opened a second round of submissions to the Inquiry into Supermarket Pricing which will close at 10am on Friday, 19 April 2024. Guidelines for making a submission to a parliamentary committee are available here: Guide to making a submission.  Submissions can be made online…

Read More Second Round Opens for Queensland’s Inquiry into Supermarket Pricing

debt, finance, money-1157824.jpg debt, finance, money-1157824.jpg

First Nations and other consumer advocates have welcomed the extension of ASIC’s interim Stop Order on Coral Coast Distributors (Cairns) Ptd Ltd trading as Urban Rampage (Urban Rampage) retail stores, where customers enter agreements to pay for goods on credit through Centrepay deductions. The original stop order was imposed because ASIC received complaints about Urban…

Read More Continued Ban of Business Centrepay Use in Remote Australia Welcomed as Advocates Call for Broader Centrepay Reform