Mr KATTER (Kennedy) (15:14): In 2001, Coles and Woolworths had 50.1 per cent of the market. That was monitored by an ANOP series, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics also had a series. By 2001, when we got to the 13th inquiry on Woolworths and Coles, one of those series indicated they had 68 per cent market control and the other one said 72 per cent. So, regardless of which one you wanted to choose, we're looking at two per cent growth a year. That was in 2001. Both series were discontinued. I asked the ANOP people, 'Why was it discontinued?' and he laughed and said, 'Why do you think?' So we can't even monitor; they've now cut up even our right to monitor how much they control, but no-one would question that their market share is up around 80, 85 or 90 per cent. No-one would question that. This is the interesting part. In 2001, we took a basket of items—just a little tiny basket—like what people would eat every week, including potatoes, milk, sugar, eggs and bananas. The mark-up in 1991, when they had 50.1 per cent of the market, was 108 per cent. That is outrageous. My family had clothing stores. We also briefly had a couple of supermarkets. There's just no way in the world—my father said, 'People will kill you if you go over 30 per cent.' In 1991, they were at 108 per cent. But when they get market share going over 70 per cent, the mark-up jumps to 179 per cent. The market was 108 per cent and now it's 179 per cent. People in this place are going to wait till they're making 300 per cent profit. You've never done anything. You realised there was a problem, because there have been 15 inquiries. You had two inquiries going at the same time, and, to quote the great Winston Churchill, 'When you absolutely must not do it, then you must, of course, have an inquiry and, the wider the breadth of the inquiry, the less likely it is to hit a target.' I mean, after 15 inquiries, not one single recommendation has been implemented in this place! I don't know how much the Liberals are getting and the National Party are getting, but I do know that we paid an investigator to investigate it, and he said, 'They've really covered their tracks.' But we went along to a fundraiser, and he said, 'There were 13 people out of about 40 or 50 people who had their names down.' I don't know which retail outlet it was, but they were managers of either Woolworths or Coles shops. They'd gone along and made a donation not under the name Woolworths or Coles, but under their own personal name. For deceit, that'd take some beating I would think. I've got nothing against the shoppers union—good on them—but they get site coverage, and I can assure you that they won't have site coverage if the Labor Party does what they should do for the people of Australia. People come into this place and they say 'affordability'. It's the latest buzzword, like 'climate change' has now been replaced by 'affordability'. What have you done on affordability? You just come in here and mouth buzzwords and, of course, you do absolutely nothing about it except hold an inquiry again and again. I was in a state parliament, and we had a problem in places like the Gold Coast and Mission Beach because rich people went there, and suddenly the price of land shot through the roof, and, of course, poor old pensioners and retired railway workers couldn't pay the rates. So Russell Hinze, a much maligned minister, immediately moved to put A plus B divided by two. There's a problem there. He solved it. We had a trucking problem, and, within two weeks, he'd solved the problem. When you see a problem like a 200 per cent mark-up on food and you come in here and have the hypocrisy to talk about affordability, how do you sleep with yourself at night? I hope you don't believe in Jesus and the hereafter, because you're going to go to a very hot place, I would think, with your cowardice. The DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Ms Claydon ): Me? Mr KATTER: Madam Deputy Speaker, I reiterate again that, when they had 50.1 per cent of the market, they had the disgusting mark-up of 108 per cent. As their market share grew, so did the outrageous mark-up, to 179 per cent. Those figures are two or three years old and my colleague from South Australia behind me pointed out today that I was using potatoes as an example. I had $3.99, and she quoted a figure which was well in excess of that. Those figures that I was quoting were 12 months old. The supermarkets are having the world's greatest picnic. Someone said, 'What about the employees of Woolworths and Coles?' There won't be any. You've all been down there, and if you're waiting at the check-out to be served you'll wait 20 minutes. If you go and serve yourself, you can go straight through. That's good, but what happens to the workers that have jobs there? Their jobs are vanishing at a rate of knots. I'm not going to go into the farmers and how they are suffering, but I will say this: at the time of the deregulation of the milk industry by the National Party, on the Friday we were on 61c a litre; on the Monday, we were on 29c a litre—that happened in one day. And who did it? It was the National Party in this place, and I was a member. Shamefully, I have to admit I was a member of that party. That was the final straw for me, and I got out as I watched my poor old dairy farmers vanish. There were 258, but then it was only 58. At a meeting, the state member, Shane Knuth, a member of our party, said, 'Try 48,' and the lady behind him said, 'Try 38.' That area had the highest suicide rate in Australia. That is what you did to the farmers. To your shame, Liberal and National parties, they still vote for you. Doesn't it make your sin infinitely worse that those poor people still believe in you. Shame, shame. There are the figures. There are people in this country going hungry now because no-one has the moral courage to stand up and act and do what should be done and is done in every other country in the world. When I looked last time, the worst country in the world was England, where the big six food retailers had 36 per cent of the market. Here we have the big two, with 85 to 90 per cent of the market. Every country has laws that say you can't have a monopoly, a duopoly or the centralisation of market power. We have those laws, but they are a joke. They are not being enforced and never will be enforced. Also, the laws themselves are grossly inadequate, and that is why we are introducing this bill. I will be very surprised if everybody on the crossbench doesn't vote for it. We got more than 33 per cent of the vote in the last election, whilst you mob got less than 33 per cent, and you mob got less than 33 per cent. So watch out, because it's growing and it will grow even further when people learn of the perfidious behaviour of this government and the last government in doing absolutely nothing and watching the farmers get destroyed. I think something like 30 per cent now of our fresh fruit and vegetables is coming from overseas, where people work for slave labour wage levels. And that's the farmers and the retailers—how many times have I heard the word 'affordability' in this place. Here's food, the most important commodity, and the people who are selling it have got mark-ups of 200 per cent. And we accept it. This legislation will stop that. (Time expired)