Samuel savages Dutton’s break-up plan

Tom McIlroy

Political correspondent

Former competition regulator Graeme Samuel and senior Liberal Kate Carnell have savaged Peter Dutton’s plan to break up supermarket giants, warning it could push up grocery prices for households.

As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese mocked the supermarket divestment push as ‘‘super Marxist’’ in question time, Mr Samuel accused Coalition MPs of not understanding their own policy.

Mr Samuel, who led the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission until 2011, said Mr Dutton was guilty of ‘‘shocking populism’’.

‘‘It is quite extraordinary,’’ he told The Australian Financial Review. ‘‘This is something that has been opposed by many experts in the field for so long now, including three reviews of competition policy.

‘‘The Harper review said this wasn’t appropriate. The Dawson review said this wasn’t appropriate. We keep on having competition reviews by independent bodies but then we introduce this nonsense. This is not the Coalition I used to support.’’

Ms Carnell, a former ACT Liberal chief minister and Australian Food and Grocery Council boss, said consumers could end up facing higher prices if Coles, Woolworths, Aldi or hardware giant Bunnings were subject to court-ordered break-ups.

‘‘I’m just not sure it’s doable in a way that doesn’t impact upon consumers. You want to look after farmers, but you also don’t want to make the cost of delivering food and groceries higher for Australians,’’ she said.

‘‘There isn’t a magic solution here.’’