Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths under pressure to move on prices

The big supermarkets are facing fresh public and political heat over high prices after the boss of Woolworths’ train wreck interview turned the spotlight back on the sector. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said an ABC expose of the supermarket industry – which included Woolworths chief executive Brad Banducci storming off set mid-interview – would add to the pressure on the two supermarket giants to lower prices. NDIS Minister Bill Shorten also accused Coles and Woolworths of using the “camouflage of inflation to price gouge”. The supermarkets have been in the cross hairs of politicians and the public for months as sky-high prices at the check-out put more pressure on household budgets. The Federal Government has commissioned former Labor minister Craig Emerson to look at the voluntary code of conduct for supermarkets while the competition watchdog has also launched a probe into the industry. A Four Corners episode aired on Monday night examined pricing practices in the sector – with Mr Banducci grabbing headlines for all the wrong reasons. Mr Banducci stormed off set after clashing with reporter Angus Grigg over suggestions Australia had the most concentrated supermarket industry in the world. The Woolies boss denied the claim, prompting Mr Grigg to point to former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission boss Rod Sims’ statements on the matter. Mr Banducci again rejected the assertion and pointed out Mr Sims was retired. The Woolies boss then asked if the comment could be removed from the interview. When Mr Grigg resisted and pressed ahead with the interrogation, Mr Banducci walked off – returning only after talks with his PR team. Mr Albanese believed the expose would intensify pressure on the supermarkets to lower prices even before the two inquiries handed down their recommendations. “One of the things that is happening, I reckon — and last night will add to it, the Four Corners program — is there’ll be pressure on the supermarkets to do the right thing,” Mr Albanese told Perth’s Hit FM radio on Tuesday. “Even before there are recommendations — I mean, they know that public opinion matters to their business.” Asked about Mr Banducci’s interview at a press conference in Perth, Mr Albanese said business chief executives needed to be “responsive” to customers. “Business CEOs are accountable for their actions, they’re accountable to their customers, and the CEOs of major companies need to do that need to be responsive,” he said. Opposition leader Peter Dutton said there was “a lot that is wrong” in the supermarket sector – suggesting more competition was the key to lower prices. Nationals leader David Littleproud, who has been among the loudest critics of the duopoly, said the Federal Government had been too slow to rein in the “greedy supermarkets”. “Labor could have started the ACCC investigation before Christmas but didn’t understand the scale nor severity of their cost-of-living crisis,” Mr Littleproud said. Clips of Mr Banducci’s horror interview went viral online – with many users questioning if the highly-paid boss was up for the job. “Brad Banducci would have to be the most inept CEO I’ve seen so far,” one user on X, formerly Twitter, said. Another asked: “Where did they get this guy from? He has an aptitude for ineptitude!”.