The head of Western Australia's Council of Social Services, Louise Giolitto, says shoppers in regional and rural areas often fork out more due to a lack of competition.
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00:00Especially the smaller town that you come across, it might just be an IGA.
00:08Many of the really small towns throughout regional WA doesn't even have a Coles or Woolies,
00:12let alone an Aldi.
00:14So there's little to no competition in those towns, and the further out you go, and the
00:19remote community stores, you know, that could be a three-hour drive from the local town
00:25which only has an IGA, the prices even become more extreme.
00:31And I think when we're talking about a basket of goods and the cost of living crisis, we
00:35know people in regional WA are doing it extremely tough, because it's not just the food prices
00:41they're being hit with, they have extra petrol costs, they have increased costs in utilities
00:47because they have to keep their houses cool, because that can be life-threatening during
00:52extreme heat.
00:53They don't have access to services, and some of the services they do access is at a higher
00:58price, and as I've already stated, there's no competition.
01:03Is the argument perhaps that there are higher prices in what supermarkets there are because
01:09of the freight costs?
01:12We understand that.
01:13I mean, WA is an extremely large state, and so when you're, you know, pushing freight
01:18all the way up to Broome, Cullinara, or the Pilbara, even Geraldton, of course there's
01:22freight costs.
01:23But that needs to be, I think, examined and supported through initiatives that are, for
01:29example, that have been introduced by the Queensland Government, where they have supported
01:35and funded a freight logistics strategy in Queensland, where they actually, for the freight
01:40companies, they provide a subsidy which is then passed on at the checkout, and you can
01:46see that subsidy on your receipt.
01:49Or even freight coordinators are trying to logistically coordinate freight going to these
01:55regional towns, and especially the remote communities.
01:59We need to be doing something to support them.
02:02Yeah.
02:03I know the costs are more there anyway, but when you're out and about, and I'm sure people
02:09tell you in your role, are people finding anyway that the costs, say, of a litre of
02:15milk has just gone up so much over the last year in this cost of living crisis?
02:22Absolutely.
02:23I think almost everyone in the community has identified they're being stung more at the
02:29supermarket.
02:30Some and many households can absorb that extra sting, which means they might be going
02:36without maybe not going to the movies so often.
02:39But we're seeing an increasing number of people seeking food and emergency relief who
02:44are working in Western Australia through many of our emergency relief providers.
02:49It's almost doubled.
02:50And that's from people who are working, including two income households.
02:53Traditionally, the people they supported were people on income support, pensioners, people
02:59on disability, sole parents, income support.
03:01But now it's many, many families and households where there's two people working who
03:06could no longer make ends meet.
03:08Louise, would it make a difference if regional councils, the WA government did
03:14some sort of incentive to get more competition in the supermarket sector?
03:22That would be great, but often it's the size of the town.
03:25So if you go to a town like Onslow, for example, you more than likely couldn't justify
03:31having the population isn't simply large enough.
03:35So somewhere like Margaret River, which is a big tourist area or Broome, there is
03:40multiple supermarkets.
03:41There's the two big food chains there as well, where there is a level of competition.
03:46So but in some of these smaller towns, it's simply they don't have the population size
03:52to actually warrant having, you know, multiple supermarkets and multiple food chains.
03:58So the solutions, I think, will have to come through another avenue.