The news that Australia’s two big supermarkets Coles and Woolworths are seeing surging profits — disproportionately compared to their international counterparts — during a cost-of-living crisis is maddening news for struggling consumers. And on top of the cost-of-living pressures, these are exactly the kinds of profits that in turn make inflation worse.
But it’s pretty good news for one group: the companies’ shareholders, some of whom are our very own politicians. According to Open Politics, the following MPs have shares in one or both of the supermarket giants.
The Nationals’ David Gillespie has shares in Coles and Woolworths, as does Labor’s Graham Perrett. Also in the ALP, newbie Higgins MP Michelle Ananda-Rajah has shares in Woolworths in the sprawling self-managed super fund she shares jointly with her partner; Holt MP Cassandra Fernando and Canberra MP Alicia Payne have just Woolworths in their relatively modest declarations, as does Tony Zappia. Liberal Senator Paul Scarr has shares only in Coles, and the LNP’s Ted O’Brien just in Woolworths.
On top of that, the partners of ALP Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth, Nationals MPs Barnaby Joyce and Anne Webster, independent MP Helen Haines and the ALP’s Ged Kearney, Kate Thwaites and Mike Freelander all have shares in one or more of the duopoly.
Incidentally, Labor’s Louise Miller-Frost and Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown aren’t just united by a double-barrelled surname — they’ll also both be kicking themselves at having recently divested.
