Australia news live: supermarket suppliers to raise grievances at competition watchdog hearing
Suppliers to raise risk concerns at supermarket inquiry
Fresh produce suppliers are expected to appear before an inquiry into supermarkets, AAP reports.
It follows allegations grocery giants used their market power to get the upper hand over farmers, some of whom feared raising their concerns with their contract partners.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is conducting public hearings as part of its supermarkets inquiry, with produce suppliers scheduled to appear today.
Fruit and vegetable suppliers earlier told the commission there was a lack of transparency around pricing and volumes and supermarkets were able to retain a disproportionate amount of the value, leaving suppliers with more of the risk.
Many expressed concerns about their capacity to negotiate prices, the commission noted in its interim report in August. Other concerns related to supermarkets encouraging oversupply, then rejecting produce more regularly. The commission reported:
These suppliers suspect some rejections are to manage supply levels rather than reflecting genuine quality concerns.
Some complained of being held liable for damage caused to produce during freight, while not being able to pick the transport provider.
Suppliers consistently reported they would not raise their concerns with the supermarket due to fear it would jeopardise their commercial relationship.
Key events
Shorten and Dutton weigh in on US election result amid cost of living crisis
The NDIS and government services minister, Bill Shorten, was up on the Today Show just earlier, where he was asked about the US election result and the “comprehensive red wave”.
Shorten congratulated president-elect Donald Trump and said there was a “clear win”, pointing to the cost of living as one key issue:
In Australia, we’ve been fortunate over the last period of time with a government who’s been focused on cost of living here, and we’ve been making it our number one priority.
Times are tough for Aussies with mortgage rates … but we’ve been putting in place measures to try and help take some of the sting out of it. So hopefully it’s not an identical situation to Australia.
The opposition leader Peter Dutton, also on the program, argued that US citizens “didn’t believe that the government was listening to them when they couldn’t pay their bills, they couldn’t pay their mortgages, couldn’t pay their insurance, their rent’s gone up.”
They just felt a real disconnect. It seems to be some of the analysis and to be honest, there’s sort of an eerie parallel with what’s happening here in Australia in that sense… I think there are some parallels. But as Bill points out, there are other parts which don’t have an equivalent here in Australia.
Heatwave warnings continuing across multiple states
The hot weather is continuing in Queensland today, with a maximum forecast of 38C in Rockhampton, 34C in Noosa Heads and 33C in Brisbane.
It comes after multiple states have had heatwave warnings throughout the past few days, and meteorologists yesterday warned of lightning strike fires at the Queensland-New South Wales border.
The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting severe thunderstorms in southern Queensland today:
Severe heatwave conditions are expected to ease in south-east Queensland over the weekend, but remain over central and northern parts of the state throughout next week.
For NSW, heatwave conditions have eased along the east coast and are expected to ease further inland in the coming days.
Severe heatwave conditions will stick around for the remainder of the week in Western Australia and the Northern Territory – with maximum temperatures in the high 30s to low 40s.
Good morning
Emily Wind
Emily Wind here, signing on for blogging duties – thanks to Martin for kicking things off for us. I’ll bring you our rolling coverage today, as another sitting week wrapped up in Canberra yesterday.
As always, you can reach out with any tips, questions or feedback via X, @emilywindwrites, or you can send me an email: emily.wind@theguardian.com.
Security expert on what Trump presidency means for Australia
The new Trump presidency means Australia must think about how to deepen and strengthen other regional security and economic ties to offset the prospects of an unpredictable US government.
So argues security expert John Blaxland in an opinion piece for us today, in which he recommends people should start to re-read the foreign policy white paper drawn up in 2017 shortly after Trump had begun his first term in office.
Full Story newsroom edition: what Trump 2.0 may mean for the future of Australian politics
Countries around the world are coming to terms with what a second Donald Trump presidency will mean for their climate policies, trade and economies. In Australia political leaders will be drawing their own conclusions about what the American result means for their own election campaigns.
In Today’s Full Story episode, Bridie Jabour talks to the editor-in-chief, Lenore Taylor, the head of newsroom, Mike Ticher, and the national news editor, Josephine Tovey, about how Trump won and how the media will cover his presidency.
More help needed for whisteblowers, big four report urges
Sarah Basford Canales
A parliamentary inquiry delivered its report yesterday into the big four accounting firms but one of its recommendations around whistleblowers caught our eye.
Among its 40 recommendations, the Labor-chaired committee said “greater practical support of whistleblowers” was needed.
The Labor senator Deborah O’Neill, who chairs the joint committee on corporations and financial services, backed the push to establish a whistleblower protection authority for both the public and private sector that could offer disclosers civil remedies and financial compensation.
It’s notable because the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, has said he was considering such a body following the opening of the National Anti-Corruption Commission but plans to create one before the federal election haven’t yet transpired.
Indi MP Helen Haines, who campaigned for a Nacc since being elected in 2019, has also long reiterated the need for a protection body. The current federal whistleblower protections have been unsuccessful in granting immunity to those who have tried to use it.
In 2023, former tax employee Richard Boyle was unsuccessful in trying to use the laws to shield him for any alleged criminal offences undertaken while preparing the disclosure.
More on the national architecture awards
As mentioned at the start, it was the national architecture awards last night – here’s our full story.
Suppliers to raise risk concerns at supermarket inquiry
Fresh produce suppliers are expected to appear before an inquiry into supermarkets, AAP reports.
It follows allegations grocery giants used their market power to get the upper hand over farmers, some of whom feared raising their concerns with their contract partners.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is conducting public hearings as part of its supermarkets inquiry, with produce suppliers scheduled to appear today.
Fruit and vegetable suppliers earlier told the commission there was a lack of transparency around pricing and volumes and supermarkets were able to retain a disproportionate amount of the value, leaving suppliers with more of the risk.
Many expressed concerns about their capacity to negotiate prices, the commission noted in its interim report in August. Other concerns related to supermarkets encouraging oversupply, then rejecting produce more regularly. The commission reported:
These suppliers suspect some rejections are to manage supply levels rather than reflecting genuine quality concerns.
Some complained of being held liable for damage caused to produce during freight, while not being able to pick the transport provider.
Suppliers consistently reported they would not raise their concerns with the supermarket due to fear it would jeopardise their commercial relationship.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Emily Wind with the main action.
Optus has paid more than $12m in penalties for breaching emergency call rules over its nationwide network outage a year ago, which caused significant disruption. The telco failed to provide access to the emergency call service for 2,145 people during the course of the outage, an investigation by the Australian Communications and Media Authority found. Details coming up.
A parliamentary inquiry recommended yesterday that the big four consultancy firms should be banned from providing a client audit and consultancy services at the same time, and have their number of partners slashed by up to 600. Set up after the tax leaks scandal at PwC Australia, the inquiry also recommended giving more protection for whistleblowers whom it said needed “greater practical support”. More coming up.
Mildura’s old power station – converted into an event space – was one of the big winners at the Australian Institute of Architects’ national awards last night when it took our prizes for sustainability and urban design. The renovation of a 19th-century Sydney mansion to house Mike Cannon-Brookes’ private offices also won an award, while an artists’ space in South Hedland, in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, won the top award for steel architecture. Details coming up.
In Canberra, fresh produce supplies are due to appear at a public hearing the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is holding for its inquiry into supermarkets – and whether they’re using their market power responsibly. Expect much talk about the price of milk. More on that coming up.
