On Monday 7 December, the Federal Indigenous Affairs Committee tabled its report on food pricing and food security.
It found that food costs are very high in remote communities, and that poor infrastructure, seasonal changes and the high costs of living and operating stores remotely all make food security a constant concern, but it did not find evidence of systemic price-gouging.
NTCOSS welcomes the Report and the recommendations around improved electricity supply, storage and local food production, and additional scrutiny of pricing and charges to safeguard against profiteering – but recommendations need to be followed by action.
In the last 11 years there have been two Federal government inquiries into community stores and food security in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, an audit undertaken on the effectiveness of food security initiatives in these communities and multiple strategies and plans which have started and stopped, and prices have only gone up.
NTCOSS CEO Deborah Di Natale spoke to the ABC’s Mitchell Abram about the Report, read the transcript below.
TRANSCRIPT : ABC ALICE SPRINGS MONDAY 8 DECEMBER 2020
Stewart Brash : ABC Alice Springs – Now, the Federal Government’s Indigenous Affairs Committee tabled its report into food pricing and food security in remote communities. That was yesterday. Now, the report recommends several measures, including real time price monitoring and a disclosure, a national scheme for licensing and inspection of remote community stores. Now, one of the areas they’re looking at was pricing, and they did not find any evidence of price gouging.
Now, the NT Council of Social Services says the Inquiry should have considered social issues which can impact upon food security. NTCOSS CEO Deborah Di Natale explained to ABC News’ Mitchell Abram that the report has ignored calls to increase Social Security payments.
Deborah Di Natale : NTCOSS – Food security is a real and serious problem for many people living in remote communities and particularly in town camps, and obviously at NTCOSS we welcome the Inquiry’s recommendations, particularly some of those around ensuring that residents of Town Camps can receive food deliveries rather than having to rely on expensive corner stores.
There are a couple of reservations that we have in relation to the report and the latest inquiry was held in the middle of some hard COVID-19 shut down. So it became really difficult for people to participate in the Report.
And the one big thing in terms of NTCOSS and in fact all the COSS’s nationally is that we have been arguing for some time that what we need to do is increase the Social Security supports and the Report ignores calls for increased Social Security payments and the need for more local jobs, the need to address transport issues, housing issues in order to have a system and a sustainable approach to addressing food insecurity.
The other reservation is that of approximately the 31 submissions that came in from the Northern Territory only nine of those came from Aboriginal community controlled organisations. And any responses that involve and impact on Aboriginal communities must always involve the time taken to talk and work with those communities for the solutions. So that was obviously a concern for us.
And in the 11 years we’ve had two Federal government inquiries into community stores and food security in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, an audit has also been undertaken on the effectiveness of food security initiatives in these communities, and there have been multiple strategies and plans which have started and stopped. And the headline recommendation on the latest Inquiry that was released today was in fact for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to undertake an enhanced market study.
Now, what I say to that is investigations, audits and inquiries are not enough, now is the time for action.
Mitchell Abram – Just going to a few of the recommendations. Obviously, there were quite a few ones, you’ve obviously mentioned the recommendation with the ACCC as well, but obviously there was a recommendation for a real time price monitoring system; national licensing, I thought was an interesting one too.
What did you make of the recommendations and do you think there were any in particular that the Federal Government and maybe even the Northern Territory government should be focusing on as a priority?
Deborah Di Natale – The Federal Government has got a role to play, particularly in critical infrastructure in some of those remote communities, to ensure that power supply, freight and storage facilities are there. So that is absolutely a priority, that I would urge the Federal Government to act on immediately.
Some of the other things that we were pleased, obviously, to see was the idea that the Australian government looks at upgrading the infrastructure and the shipping lanes to improve the food supply, and the development of a strategy with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for food security.
And there was also a recommendation for greater government support for community leaders to undertake their role on the community store boards. And we would absolutely support that.
Mitchell Abram – And yeah, obviously, just going back to that ACCC recommendation, so obviously the enhanced market study. So I guess how much of a difference do you think something like the ACCC could make into looking into remote prices?
Deborah Di Natale – I think there’s always a role for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, absolutely, n terms of looking at enhanced market study into the food and grocery prices in remote stores. I think it could make some recommendations about how it should increase competition in those remote areas and put a downward pressure on the food prices. There’s no question there.
However, I don’t think we should wait for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to undertake this market study, because that is going to set us back months. What we need to do is we need to act on some of those recommendations immediately to alleviate the cost of living pressures for people in town camps.
Mitchell Abram – And just on the, its kind of towards the end of that recommendation as well, obviously talks about ways in which community members can be better informed of their rights as consumers. That was one thing I noticed in a little bit of reading I did was talking about people not really knowing what to do when they had complaints. And obviously, you know, you can’t really address a problem if you don’t know it’s there. So do you think I guess making sure people have a more straightforward way to make complaints about prices or anything in general is definitely something that we should be looking at as well.
Deborah Di Natale – It is absolutely essential that everybody, particularly those residents who are living in Aboriginal remote communities, have an understanding of complaints and the complaints system available to them.
Stewart Brash – that was Deb Di Natale, CEO of the Northern Territory Council of Social Service speaking to Mitch Abram.