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"The last thing that people needed at Christmas time was another rate rise so I think this decision today from the Reserve Bank will be met with sighs of relief right around Australia."
An early Christmas present for homeowners and for Treasurer Jim Chalmers.
After five rate rises this year, Australia's central bank has held interest rates steady at 4.35 per cent.
Inflation also fell to 4.9 per cent in October but that's still nearly double the Reserve Bank's target range.
And while homeowners may have been given mortgage relief for now, many say they can't escape rising grocery bills.
“Look, I reckon it's gone up 20 to 30 per cent. Easy.”
“It's appalling, absolutely appalling. And I tell you, every time I go in, the price of things go up, the size of things go down, and it's awful. Do I need it? No. So I don't buy it."
Now cost pressures at the checkout will be the focus of scrutiny in the Senate.
The Greens have secured cross-party support for a parliamentary committee inquiry, examining price-setting and market power in the supermarket sector, with the focus firmly on two dominating forces.
Woolworths and Coles both posted profits of more than $1 billion in the past financial year.
The latest IBISWorld data shows together they controlled 65 per cent of the supermarket sector.
But both have denied claims of price gouging, attributing prices rises to the increased cost of doing business and economy-wide inflationary pressures on their suppliers.
National Farmers Federation CEO Tony Maher says higher in-store prices are not translating to bigger profits for producers.
"All their costs have gone up, so labour, energy, fuel, fertiliser, energy, chemicals, all of these products have gone up and that's a real challenge for farmers, they have real problems passing those increases up the supply chain because of the consolidated market."
Allan Fels is the former chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
He's welcomed the inquiry, saying current laws do very little to combat the supermarket duopoly.
"The surprising thing about Australia's competition laws is that they've got no provisions about excessive pricing which is the number one result of a lack of competition. The problem goes back to competition. We need to strengthen competition if we are to reduce price gouging.”
He says one way to do this would be to introduce divestiture laws, giving courts power to break up a big business where it has been found guilty of monopolisation.
“If there were a divestiture power in the competition law, it would result in far better behaviour, far better compliance with the law than by businesses now, which regard the laws as fines which are just the cost of doing business. "
Tony Maher says he hopes the inquiry will result in greater transparency in pricing, and stronger laws protecting suppliers.
“From bananas to beef, right across the supply chain, who's making the dollar and how can we better understand how that retail market operates and make sure that everybody is getting their fair share."
The Greens are hoping to call the heads of Coles and Woolworths to appear before the Senate inquiry, which won't start until next year.
