00:00 It's looking at a gamut of issues. It's looking at basically a lot of industries, so supermarket,
00:08 grocery prices, energy prices, insurance prices and even airfares. And as you've mentioned,
00:17 former ACCC Chairman Alan Fells is chairing this inquiry on behalf of the ACTU.
00:24 So what's Alan Fells worried about?
00:27 So he spoke this morning, he did a press conference this morning, and he's very worried that price
00:31 gouging is going on. Of course, we've seen higher inflation push up prices across the
00:37 board. But Alan Fells is saying that's not the whole story, that it's not just inflation
00:43 that's pushing up prices, that he's pretty sure that there is some price gouging going
00:47 on, for example, by the big supermarket giants and by all the other industries I mentioned.
00:53 And so Alan has mentioned that he wants to see stronger competition laws and stronger
00:59 merger laws. He's saying at the moment the onus of proof is on the ACCC to prove that
01:04 a merger won't be detrimental, but they end up going to court facing an army of lawyers
01:10 and it's very hard to prove this. And the onus of proof should basically be reversed
01:15 to put it on the company to prove that it's not harmful to competition.
01:19 It's important to note that this is not a Senate inquiry, they don't have the power
01:23 to compel, for example, supermarket bosses to attend and answer questions. But I'm sure
01:29 that there will be a report that comes out of that and that report might influence future
01:33 decisions. One of the things that we've talked about, obviously, is Fells saying that we
01:38 should reverse the onus of proof. Beyond that, there's been recommendations from groups like
01:43 the Australia Institute to have price regulation in certain industries like the energy sector
01:49 and to ensure that wages are rising, not just in line with inflation, but to ensure that
01:56 it's fair in some particular sectors and ensure that workers are getting real wage rises.
02:02 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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