PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Mr SOON (Banks) (11:13): I move: That this House: (1) recognises that backing consumers and competition helps to keep prices down, expand choice and reward businesses that innovate and treat their customers fairly; (2) commends the Government for strengthening Australia's competition and consumer framework by: (a) making excessive pricing by very large supermarkets illegal from 1 July 2026; (b) increasing maximum penalties for major breaches of competition and consumer law to $100 million; (c) passing laws to ban subscription traps, drip pricing and unfair trading practices from 1 July 2027; and (d) providing the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission with an additional $67.7 million over four years to strengthen enforcement; (3) notes that these reforms protect consumers from misleading and unfair conduct, while supporting businesses that compete on price, service and quality; and (4) supports the Government's continuing work to tackle shrinkflation, strengthen unit pricing, and improve price, promotion and loyalty transparency for shoppers.

I am deeply passionate about effective competition policy, as it is the cornerstone of well-functioning markets and therefore the foundation of our ongoing economic success. This Labor government is committed to ensuring strong protections for Australian consumers. We understand that consumer and competition laws are not just about fair treatment for consumers but also about making sure that businesses who find advantage in new innovations are rewarded.

It is why we have a comprehensive program of reforms, some of which are already fully implemented. We are protecting Australian consumers at the check-out, putting an end to nefarious practices, supporting enforcement and ensuring that, where consumer law is breached, penalties are significant enough to change behaviour and meet community expectations. This government understands that Australians are currently feeling the pressure of their weekly shop.

That's why we have initiated a wide-ranging cost-of-living crackdown on anticompetitive behaviour in the food and grocery sector to hold big supermarkets to account. We've made supermarket price gouging illegal; we've banned unfair trading practices that manipulate, distort or direct consumer choice; we've made the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct mandatory; and we are strengthening the unit price code to crack down on shrinkflation.

All of this is backed by stronger penalties, with the maximum fine under the Competition and Consumer Act increasing from $10 million to $100 million. Our ban on supermarket price gouging will subject offenders to penalties of $10 million, three times the value of the benefit or 10 per cent of annual turnover during the preceding 12 months—whichever is greater.

This will help ensure that price gouging and anticompetitive behaviour can never be written off as a cost of doing business. Another element of the government's policy in this space is reform to end unfair and, frankly, annoying tactics like the subscription traps used by some businesses. Too often, subscription arrangements are designed around the assumption that consumers will forget to cancel, won't notice a renewal payment or will struggle to follow a convoluted or unclear process for cancellation.

This is something that, like many in the community of Banks I represent, I have experienced myself. I've seen this with streaming services, with gyms and with certain online stores. The Competition and Consumer Amendment (Unfair Trading Practices) Act stipulates that businesses must clearly disclose information about a subscription and that cancellation must be straightforward.

This reflects the principle that, if a subscription can be started in just seconds, it shouldn't take hours to cancel. Another such practice is drip pricing, where mandatory transaction fees are excluded from the price until the very end of the check-out process. Now, under the act, businesses will need to disclose all mandatory fees alongside the base price, making sure consumers are given the real price upfront and other businesses are not disadvantaged by those who conceal the true costs of their goods and services through these practices.

There is so much more that we are doing to improve competition in the Australian economy. We are supporting growers and producers with grants to help them stand up to the big supermarkets in negotiations and extending the right to repair to agricultural machinery. We have also implemented the biggest overhaul of merger laws in 50 years, helping to prevent the emergence of monopolies.

We're making it easier for new entrants to the supermarket sector while also increasing enforcement and scrutiny through the ACCC and through CHOICE. This is a comprehensive agenda for competition and consumer law. It protects consumers from misleading and unfair conduct and supports businesses that compete on price, service and quality—as it should be.