Suppliers to raise risk concerns at supermarket inquiry
Fresh produce suppliers are expected to appear before an inquiry into supermarkets, AAP reports.
It follows allegations grocery giants used their market power to get the upper hand over farmers, some of whom feared raising their concerns with their contract partners.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is conducting public hearings as part of its supermarkets inquiry, with produce suppliers scheduled to appear today.
Fruit and vegetable suppliers earlier told the commission there was a lack of transparency around pricing and volumes and supermarkets were able to retain a disproportionate amount of the value, leaving suppliers with more of the risk.
Many expressed concerns about their capacity to negotiate prices, the commission noted in its interim report in August. Other concerns related to supermarkets encouraging oversupply, then rejecting produce more regularly. The commission reported:
These suppliers suspect some rejections are to manage supply levels rather than reflecting genuine quality concerns.
Some complained of being held liable for damage caused to produce during freight, while not being able to pick the transport provider.
Suppliers consistently reported they would not raise their concerns with the supermarket due to fear it would jeopardise their commercial relationship.
Key events
Total fire ban for Sydney amid heatwave and high fire danger rating
Earlier, we flagged that heatwave warnings were persisting across multiple states today – including New South Wales.
The Rural Fire Service has put a total fire ban in place for Greater Sydney and the Illawarra/Shoalhaven region today, with a high fire danger rating across much of the state.
Total fire bans are also in place further north near the Queensland border, in the North Western and Upper Central West Plains districts.
Shorten defends social media ban for under 16s because ‘a duty of care is a legitimate proposition’
Moving to the government’s latest social media policy – banning under 16s from platforms – Bill Shorten was asked how users will actually verify users age without handing over sensitive information to tech giants?
He didn’t respond directly, but said that “the large tech companies have got the ability to do this” and used the example of mandatory seat belts:
When we first proposed having mandatory seat belts to protect people, car companies said that would just be the end of it. And well, you know what? It’s not, and we don’t ask civilians and car road users to bring their own seat belt to a car. So why should social media companies buck past their own duty of care?
You’re not allowed to produce products and monetise and privatise kids experiences when they’re kids, and trade in their data, and just say ‘nothing to do with us’.
Shorten said the cut off of 16-years-old was reached through “a lot of consultation”. He described the age limit as “a start” but “not the only tool.”
I recognise its limitations, and I recognise that people will try and do work arounds, and I recognise social media companies will scream like scolded cats that anything which might affect their gazillion dollar profit is just a pain in the butt for them.
But you know what? There’s not just them in this world. We don’t just exist to serve big social media companies, and a duty of care is a legitimate proposition. It was one of the recommendations of government inquiries, and I think we’ll be hearing more about that.
Shorten provides more reaction to Trump election win
The government services minister, Bill Shorten, is now speaking with ABC RN to reflect on the results of the US election – having been Labor leader during Donald Trump’s last presidency.
Shorten said he believes the Albanese government will be able to find common ground with Trump despite having different agendas because “the alliance with America runs deep” and “it’s about our national interest”.
The American people have spoken. That’s unequivocal. Mr Trump got 72.7 million votes. Vice-president Harris got 68 million votes. He won. He’s the guy we’ve got to deal with. They’re a democratic country, they’ve had their elections. We respect the outcome.
Asked if he would like to see Anthony Albanese “be outspoken about things that he thinks are wrong”, Shorten answered: “I’ve got no doubt that our prime minister will speak up in the national interest, first and foremost.”
He was also asked about opposition leader Peter Dutton’s focus on cost of living and immigration, and if this mirrors the US, and responded:
One of the gifts which makes Australia one of the luckiest countries in the world is we’re the only nation who occupies a continent entirely to ourselves as a nation. So whilst we want to make sure that crooks and bad people are sent out of the country, we don’t have the same land border challenges as the US. I’m not quite sure it’s an important issue here, but the heat on those border states in America is just red hot.
Racism, colonialism ‘driving Indigenous self-harm’
Australia’s dark colonial past and ongoing racism are driving self-harm in Indigenous communities, according to a respected Aboriginal psychologist.
As AAP reports, there were 3214 deaths due to suicide in Australia in 2023, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Just 275 of those were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, but when adjusted for population size and age structure, the rate of death was more than double that of non-Indigenous Australians.
Psychologist Pat Dudgeon says Indigenous self-harm and suicide are often a response to the grief and despair brought by more than 200 years of brutal oppression, genocide, the removal of children from their families, and the unequal power dynamic that persists to this day.
That whole process has left communities suffering from intergenerational trauma, disadvantage and ongoing racism, as well as the exclusion from the benefits of society and a lack of acknowledgement and respect for their different cultural values.
Prof Dudgeon said self-determination was an important cultural solution for suicide and self-harm prevention.
We still want clinical approaches but we want to see culture at the centre of that.
In 2023, suicide was the leading cause of death in Australia for children and people aged 15 to 44 years, according to the ABS. Across all age groups, 2419 males and 795 females fatally self-harmed.
Three-quarters of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who died from suicide were male and almost 80% of all who died from intentional self-harming were aged between 15 and 44 years.
Shorten and Dutton weigh in on US election result amid cost of living crisis
The NDIS and government services minister, Bill Shorten, was up on the Today show just earlier, where he was asked about the US election result and the “comprehensive red wave”.
Shorten congratulated the president-elect, Donald Trump, and said there was a “clear win”, pointing to the cost of living as one key issue:
In Australia, we’ve been fortunate over the last period of time with a government who’s been focused on cost of living here, and we’ve been making it our No 1 priority.
Times are tough for Aussies with mortgage rates … but we’ve been putting in place measures to try and help take some of the sting out of it. So hopefully it’s not an identical situation to Australia.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, also on the program, argued that US citizens “didn’t believe that the government was listening to them when they couldn’t pay their bills, they couldn’t pay their mortgages, couldn’t pay their insurance, their rent’s gone up.”
They just felt a real disconnect. It seems to be some of the analysis and, to be honest, there’s sort of an eerie parallel with what’s happening here in Australia in that sense … I think there are some parallels. But as Bill points out, there are other parts which don’t have an equivalent here in Australia.
Heatwave warnings continuing across multiple states
The hot weather is continuing in Queensland today, with a maximum forecast of 38C in Rockhampton, 34C in Noosa Heads and 33C in Brisbane.
It comes after multiple states have had heatwave warnings throughout the past few days, and meteorologists yesterday warned of lightning strike fires at the Queensland-New South Wales border.
The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting severe thunderstorms in southern Queensland today:
Severe heatwave conditions are expected to ease in south-east Queensland over the weekend, but remain over central and northern parts of the state throughout next week.
For NSW, heatwave conditions have eased along the east coast and are expected to ease further inland in the coming days.
Severe heatwave conditions will stick around for the remainder of the week in Western Australia and the Northern Territory – with maximum temperatures in the high 30s to low 40s.
Good morning
Emily Wind
Emily Wind here, signing on for blogging duties – thanks to Martin for kicking things off for us. I’ll bring you our rolling coverage today, as another sitting week wrapped up in Canberra yesterday.
As always, you can reach out with any tips, questions or feedback via X, @emilywindwrites, or you can send me an email: [email protected].
Security expert on what Trump presidency means for Australia
The new Trump presidency means Australia must think about how to deepen and strengthen other regional security and economic ties to offset the prospects of an unpredictable US government.
So argues security expert John Blaxland in an opinion piece for us today, in which he recommends people should start to re-read the foreign policy white paper drawn up in 2017 shortly after Trump had begun his first term in office.
Full Story newsroom edition: what Trump 2.0 may mean for the future of Australian politics
Countries around the world are coming to terms with what a second Donald Trump presidency will mean for their climate policies, trade and economies. In Australia political leaders will be drawing their own conclusions about what the American result means for their own election campaigns.
In Today’s Full Story episode, Bridie Jabour talks to the editor-in-chief, Lenore Taylor, the head of newsroom, Mike Ticher, and the national news editor, Josephine Tovey, about how Trump won and how the media will cover his presidency.
More help needed for whisteblowers, big four report urges
Sarah Basford Canales
A parliamentary inquiry delivered its report yesterday into the big four accounting firms but one of its recommendations around whistleblowers caught our eye.
Among its 40 recommendations, the Labor-chaired committee said “greater practical support of whistleblowers” was needed.
The Labor senator Deborah O’Neill, who chairs the joint committee on corporations and financial services, backed the push to establish a whistleblower protection authority for both the public and private sector that could offer disclosers civil remedies and financial compensation.
It’s notable because the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, has said he was considering such a body following the opening of the National Anti-Corruption Commission but plans to create one before the federal election haven’t yet transpired.
Indi MP Helen Haines, who campaigned for a Nacc since being elected in 2019, has also long reiterated the need for a protection body. The current federal whistleblower protections have been unsuccessful in granting immunity to those who have tried to use it.
In 2023, former tax employee Richard Boyle was unsuccessful in trying to use the laws to shield him for any alleged criminal offences undertaken while preparing the disclosure.
More on the national architecture awards
As mentioned at the start, it was the national architecture awards last night – here’s our full story.
Suppliers to raise risk concerns at supermarket inquiry
Fresh produce suppliers are expected to appear before an inquiry into supermarkets, AAP reports.
It follows allegations grocery giants used their market power to get the upper hand over farmers, some of whom feared raising their concerns with their contract partners.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is conducting public hearings as part of its supermarkets inquiry, with produce suppliers scheduled to appear today.
Fruit and vegetable suppliers earlier told the commission there was a lack of transparency around pricing and volumes and supermarkets were able to retain a disproportionate amount of the value, leaving suppliers with more of the risk.
Many expressed concerns about their capacity to negotiate prices, the commission noted in its interim report in August. Other concerns related to supermarkets encouraging oversupply, then rejecting produce more regularly. The commission reported:
These suppliers suspect some rejections are to manage supply levels rather than reflecting genuine quality concerns.
Some complained of being held liable for damage caused to produce during freight, while not being able to pick the transport provider.
Suppliers consistently reported they would not raise their concerns with the supermarket due to fear it would jeopardise their commercial relationship.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Emily Wind with the main action.
Optus has paid more than $12m in penalties for breaching emergency call rules over its nationwide network outage a year ago, which caused significant disruption. The telco failed to provide access to the emergency call service for 2,145 people during the course of the outage, an investigation by the Australian Communications and Media Authority found.
A parliamentary inquiry recommended yesterday that the big four consultancy firms should be banned from providing a client audit and consultancy services at the same time, and have their number of partners slashed by up to 600. Set up after the tax leaks scandal at PwC Australia, the inquiry also recommended giving more protection for whistleblowers whom it said needed “greater practical support”. More coming up.
Mildura’s old power station – converted into an event space – was one of the big winners at the Australian Institute of Architects’ national awards last night when it took our prizes for sustainability and urban design. The renovation of a 19th-century Sydney mansion to house Mike Cannon-Brookes’ private offices also won an award, while an artists’ space in South Hedland, in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, won the top award for steel architecture.
In Canberra, fresh produce supplies are due to appear at a public hearing the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is holding for its inquiry into supermarkets – and whether they’re using their market power responsibly. Expect much talk about the price of milk. More on that coming up.