Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has taken the opportunity to turnup the heat on supermarkets about passing on their savings to end customers as he confirmed former Labor cabinet minister, Craig Emerson, will lead the government's latest review of the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct.

First announced in October, the second review into the code covering the commercial relationships between retailers, wholesalers and suppliers is about assessing the effectiveness of the voluntary industry-led regulatory system, and whether there's a need to mandate tougher regulation and introduce penalties.

Albanese's latest swipe at the supermarkets comes amid growing concerns that the big players are not passing on cost savings from wholesale relationships to their customers. In an interview on ABC breakfast radio this week, the prime minister said it's clear savings made by supermarkets are not making it through to the hip pocket of consumers.

"We know that when we have seen a reduction in the cost to supermarkets, that hasn't bene passed on in an appropriate way to consumers. And we want to make sure that happens," Albanese told the ABC.

The sentiments have also been echoed by treasurer, Jim Chalmers, who was quoted this past week expressing concern about the price of meat, fruit and vegetables, stating, "if the supermarkets are buying it cheaper, they should be selling it cheaper too".

The current code is due to be repealed on 1 April 2025, and a two-part review of the code is a requirement for the government prior to this date. The first review had an emphasis on dispute resolution provisions, and a final report was tabled in September last year. The code was first established in 2015.

A report on the grocery code review is due in by 30 June this year.

Coinciding with the code review is a fresh Senate Select Committee inquiry into whether Australia's major supermarkets are gouging prices. Established in early December, it's the third to look into the price setting practices and market power of Australia's major supermarkets.

That inquiry has been spearheaded by the Australian Greens, and aims to scrutinise the impact of market concentration on food prices and the pattern of pricing strategies employed by the supermarket duopoly. It will also assess the rise in essential item prices, the validity of discounts offered, and the inflation of profits during economic hardship.

As reported in Mi3, Woolworths Group CEO, Brad Banducci, as well as Coles CEO, Leah Weckert, will be appearing at the Senate Select Committee.

"Coles and Woolworths are making billions in profits by price gouging in a cost-of-living crisis," Greens Economic Justice Spokesperson Senator Nick McKim said on 3 December. "For too long the big supermarkets have had too much market power. This allows them to dictate prices and terms that are hitting people hard."

"It's time to smash the duopoly."

The Nationals have gone further, calling for an ACCC inquiry into the pricing charged by supermarkets. In an interview with Nine's Weekend Today on Sunday, followed by Sky News, Nationals leader, David Littleproud, highlighted the significant gap between the monetary value of products farms are supplying to supermarkets, and what consumers are paying at the checkout.

"We saw it with the beef prices where we saw a 60, 70 per cent reduction at the farmgate, but only an eight per cent reduction at the checkout and the same's happening with fruit and vegetables, melon producers," Littleproud said. As another example, he said melon producers are getting paid $1.50 per kilo, yet supermarkets are charging over $4. "Someone is cleaning up - and that's the supermarkets."

Queensland premier, Steven Miles, has expressed his concerns around the disparity between the prices received by farmers and retail checkout prices, publicly sharing a letter he's penned to the big supermarkets on 5 January querying the prices received by farmers and retail checkout prices.

In the letter, the premier cited the same Meat and Livestock Australia data indicating cattle and sheep meat prices have decreased 60 to 60 per cent in the last year, yet Queensland families have "not witnessed a proportional reduction in supermarket meat prices".

The coalition has also been vocal, and this week accused the major supermarkets of imposing "extraordinary" retail mark-ups on the food they purchase from suppliers.

In their last full-year financial reports, both Woolworths and Coles reported increases in group EBIT and net profits off the back of year-on-year revenue growth. Woolworths made a total net profit after tax of $1.62 billion in 2023, while Coles made $1.1bn. Both brands have more recently noted deflation of prices on fresh food and said they're aware of the economic pressures facing Australian consumers.