AUSTRALIA needs an ombudsman to protect consumers and food producers from being ripped-off by big supermarkets, consumer group Choice says.
Choice has urged Canberra to appoint a dedicated supermarket ombudsman to tackle issues of competition and fairness in the grocery sector.
The call, backed by the NSW Farmers' Association, comes after the federal government's so-called Grocery Choice website project was scrapped last June.
The non-profit group says an ombudsman would deliver leadership in the sector, enforce regulatory rules and suggest rule changes, research where parts of the market are not working and support consumer education on unit pricing.
"There is a need for real leadership on resolving supermarket issues in Australia - rip-off prices, endemic unfairness and the lowest level of competition possible," Choice chief executive Nick Stace said.
"There is a need for government to seriously consider a bold and robust policy that will bring about real change, not the window shopping currently taking place."
Supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths sell about 75 per cent of all packaged groceries in Australia and have been blamed for Australians paying the fastest growing growing prices for groceries in the world.
Australia has the 10th-highest food inflation of 30 OECD countries for the year to September 2009, Mr Stace said.
"These are industry-specific problems, which economy-wide regulators have been unable or unwilling to tackle head on," Mr Stace said.
"It will go on like this for another 100 years unless radical and bold action is taken."
But the Australian National Retailers Association (ANRA) defended the major supermarkets, saying there was already greater price transparency and consistent national pricing on many product lines.
"Choice's plan would just create another layer of bureaucracy, the cost of which would land in the laps of taxpayers and consumers," ANRA chief executive Margy Osmond said in a statement.
Meanwhile, residents in Mullumbimby on the NSW mid-north coast have banded together to try to prevent Woolworths from opening a store in their town.
The group, called the Mullumbimby Forum, says it has 1000 signed letters opposing the supermarket.
It has offered to work with Woolworths to conduct a professional independent poll in the town and says it will end its campaign
if the poll finds that a majority supports the establishment of the supermarket.
