This week's announcement Craig Emerson is to head the second part of an ongoing review into the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct is unlikely to have any significant impact on the price of food at the checkout in the foreseeable future.
Indeed, given it is generally accepted food inflation peaked midway during 2023 and that prices have been - albeit gradually - trending down in many cases, a cynic could be excused for asking what, exactly, the government is trying to achieve.
The first part of the review, which covered the code's dispute resolution process, was released on Wednesday along with the government's response.
The review did not recommend any sweeping changes to the relevant section of the code, noting that "there is broad ongoing support within the grocery industry for retaining the current dispute resolution framework".
It also said the framework, outlined in section five of the code, "should be given more time to work - particularly as it was fully implemented and operational until March 2021" and that "the low number of disputes that have used the current framework does not necessarily mean that it is not working".
That said, it did recommend some minor tweaks enabling code arbiters to mediate and to enable the independent reviewer to conduct an evaluation of the complaints handling process.
The government has supported both these recommendations.
Given there is nothing in the first part of the review that will drive down prices, claims by Mr Albanese, Dr Chalmers, Mr Watt and Dr Leigh that the review into the balance of what is, after all, a voluntary code supported by suppliers and retailers will force supermarkets to drop their prices don't hold water.
Sandwiched as it was between discussion of flooding emergencies in Queensland and Victoria, Wednesday's announcement would appear to be, at best, a tokenistic attempt to persuade punters the government is acting on the cost of living crisis.
The aforementioned floods are much more likely to influence prices at the checkout in the coming months than anything Mr Emerson will be able to achieve.
That said, consumers will have little sympathy for major supermarket chains which declared massive properties at the height of the inflation spiral. That has made them, like the big four banks a few years ago, very easy targets for a government desperately in need of distractions and a reset following an annus horribilis of its making.
So, in the tradition of "never let a chance go by", the ministerial minders were able come up with zingers such as "Capitalism depends on competition. Monopolies gouge consumers and workers, and undermine fairness" (Dr Leigh) and "While the government is getting on with taking action on the cost of groceries, the ball is in the court of the big retailers" (Mr Watt).
The best lines however were reserved for Mr Albanese who said, "If the price for meat and fruit and vegetables is going down at the farm gate then families should be seeing cheaper prices on supermarket shelves too".
That is happening already, with The Canberra Times reporting on Thursday that one of the two largest supermarket chains had dropped the price of lamb loin chops to $16/kg, the lowest they have been in four years.
While there have been attempts to link this to the review, that seems unlikely given it was part of a concerted price cutting program across 300 lines which would have taken months to set up.
The proof of the pudding will be in the eating. There appears to be no set timeline for the Emerson review, and by the time a report is released inflation may be back within the target band.
