The news that Australia’s two big supermarkets Coles and Woolworths are seeing surging profits — disproportionately compared to their international counterparts — during a cost-of-living crisis is maddening news for struggling consumers. And on top of the cost-of-living pressures, these are exactly the kinds of profits that in turn make inflation worse.
But it’s pretty good news for one group: the companies’ shareholders, some of whom are our very own politicians. According to Open Politics, the following MPs have shares in one or both of the supermarket giants.
The Nationals’ David Gillespie has shares in Coles and Woolworths, as does Labor’s Graham Perrett. Also in the ALP, newbie Higgins MP Michelle Ananda-Rajah has shares in Woolworths in the sprawling self-managed super fund she shares jointly with her partner; Holt MP Cassandra Fernando and Canberra MP Alicia Payne have just Woolworths in their relatively modest declarations, as does Tony Zappia. Liberal Senator Paul Scarr has shares only in Coles, and the LNP’s Ted O’Brien just in Woolworths.
On top of that, the partners of ALP Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth, Nationals MPs Barnaby Joyce and Anne Webster, independent MP Helen Haines and the ALP’s Ged Kearney, Kate Thwaites and Mike Freelander all have shares in one or more of the duopoly.
Incidentally, Labor’s Louise Miller-Frost and Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown aren’t just united by a double-barrelled surname — they’ll also both be kicking themselves at having recently divested.
Really? Is there any reason or actual evidence to assume that? How does the author know for sure that these two MPs are not simply glad to be no longer associated with the price-gouging duopoly? Get a grip. This is just a pathetic cheap-shot smear.
Absolutely, this gouging is not new news, their divestment would much more likely be because of the issue.
Ignores the broad mass of Australians who indirectly own and benefit from Woolworths and Coles in their super funds, like many other duopolies and oligopolies locally.
My thoughts also- I assumed it was quite deliberate ; if so good on them! Come on Crikey, we expect better than snide SKY like comments!
On Coles: this may be a first-world problem, but has anyone else tried to complain about them closing express lanes, trying to force customers to work for them for nothing on self-check-out machines and adding to the work-intensity and stress of the remaining checkout staff who have to deal with non-stop long queues and irate customers? (If you complain on their website you get an obtuse non-response from a bot.) Who do they take customer-service advice from: Alan Joyce?
Next time, drop into their staff room and grab a free coffee. After all, by using the self-service (ha), you’re actually working for them. Sadly, Aldi is doing the same with SS checkouts being installed.
I made the mistake of shopping at Coles one day last year and used the self-service checkout as there were long queues at the other open checkouts. Four times I had to wait for a staff member to intervene. These checkouts are extremely temperamental for a device that is expected to be used by people with no training. Afterwards I gave my feedback to the supervisor, who was very understanding and told me they receive numerous complaints every week. Coles’ management obviously just doesn’t care. I haven’t been back since. I live in SA and I much prefer the variety at Foodland, plus they support local producers. My preferred store has an excellent home delivery service which saves me time and money, with refrigerated and frozen items packed well. It is not worth my time or sanity to shop at Coles.
Surging profits at Coles and Woolworths is bad news for everyone
If Crikey can’t afford to pay sub-editors, could someone at least, please, turn on the grammar checker on your word processing software.
Surging profits at Coles and Woolworths ARE bad news for everyone
It’s not that they “..can’t afford to pay sub-editors..” (given the iniquitous no refund policy) as being unable to even understand the concept, let alone need, for grammar, syntax, parsing, word meanings or basic sentence construction.
Yikes!
Yep. Awaiting for approval always infuriates me.
I fondly remember a former boss who used to use the phrase “an au fait accompli”. Often…
Mind you, it also brings to mind a colleague who used to end our then-boss’s surname with an “-o” instead of an “-is” ending. One day, after literally thousands of repetitions, I distractedly corrected him. Didn’t mean to – it just slipped out. It turned out that he just plain didn’t know that he was saying it wrong. Nobody had ever let him know.
Lesson? Sometimes you keep getting it wrong because you just have no reason to think it isn’t right. Happens to the best of us… and me.
There have been many correction and adverse comments but Crikey editors seem not to care.
Sorry to be a wet blanket, but the “is bad news” refers to the news rather than the corporations. (“The news that Australia’s two big supermarkets Coles and Woolworths are seeing surging profits … during a cost-of-living crisis is maddening news for struggling consumers.”)
The construction of the sentence makes ‘the profits’ the subject. The ‘is’ refers to the profits: that they are bad news.
Realistically, any member who invests in an industry or retail superannuation fund most likely has some exposure to both major supermarket chains. A quick search revealed the Australian Super balanced fund has investments in both and I would not be surprised if a lot of others did as well.
Thanks, you answered the question I was about to ask.
Just so, hence it’s like Milo Minderbinder’s syndicate in Catch 22. Everyone allegedly has a “share”, a claim which Minderbinder uses to defend his actions, stating that what is good for the company is good for all.
Yes, I remember him bombing his own side for profit because everyone benefitted.
What about the chocolate coated egyptian cotton? Or the mysterious eggs? In the sequel, penned by Heller decades later, Milo was a billionaire in NYC and a patron of the yartze.
Reading this article is a waste of time. Anyone who has a retail or industry superfund would, in all probability, own shares in Woolworths and Coles. Most Self Managed Super Funds would own these share also. I wonder what Charlie Lewis was trying to achieve with this kind of article
Beat me to it….
A bit of a nothing burger.