David Shoebridge, who became Greens party leader last week, says the pitch warrants discussion.
  • galacticworm@piefed.socialEnglish
    12·
    3 days ago

    Call me a pessimist, but anything government owned that is mildly successful will be sold off by the Libs at the first available opportunity… imagine if $9b a year from the Commonwealth Bank was going back into revenue, then add telecoms, electricity providers etc

    • pHr34kY@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      3 days ago

      Then just make it a cost centre propped up by taxpayers. You could make shelf prices really cheap. Model it like public transport or public healthcare.

  • dan@upvote.auEnglish
    101·
    3 days ago

    Why not a co-op instead? Owned by members rather than a corporation/shareholders.

    On the other hand, if government subsidisation works well for medication (with the PBS) and university (with CSP places), maybe it’d work well for other necessities like food too.

      • Nath@aussie.zoneMEnglish
        51·
        3 days ago

        Owned by individual isn’t the same thing. Whoever owns the IGA still has an interest in making a profit. A Co-op is like a club where the store is owned by club members. The idea is the store sells everything at/near cost price.

        Whether your co-op can buy cheaper than Colesworth retail prices is a different matter.

        The Government however can in theory buy products at enough scale to be at a comparable wholesale price to Colesworth - and if they start selling at/near wholesale cost price, it can put pressure on the duopoly to actually compete.

        • dan@upvote.auEnglish
          1·
          1 day ago

          Whether your co-op can buy cheaper than Colesworth retail prices is a different matter.

          Some people are willing to pay a bit more if it means supporting a community store over a big corporate one.

          I’m living in the USA now, and there’s a lot more supermarkets here. In my area in California, there’s a few local chains with 3-4 stores, some co-ops, and the major stores. The biggest supermarket (Walmart/Sam’s Club) only has 20% market share, and even the top 5 companies (Walmart, Kroger, Costco, Albertsons and Ahold Delhaize) still only account for 44% market share. The top 3 in Australia (Coles, Woolworths, and Aldi) account for around 75% market share.

  • arbilp3@aussie.zoneEnglish
    7·
    3 days ago

    “For half the cost of a single AUKUS submarine we could establish a national network of publicly owned supermarkets that would save families thousands of dollars on their groceries,”

    I like that idea. We may not even get the ruddy submarines anyway but still have forked out billions for them.