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Dr Craig Emerson was appointed to lead the review of the Food and Grocery Code.3 Early in 2024, Queensland Premier Steven Miles announced a parliamentary inquiry into the price of groceries,4 and the Australian Government announced that it will direct the ACCC to conduct an inquiry into the supermarket sector, the first in 16 years.5 The increased political and public scrutiny on supermarket prici. [...] Competition and inequality Australians live in a rich country, one of the richest in the world.52 In 2023 Australia ranked 10th highest GDP per capita in the world and third highest among the world’s 20 largest economies.53 But in our wealthy country, more than 90% of the gains from economic growth go to the top 10 % of income earners.54 Company profits are soaring, while real wages are falling.55. [...] As Adam Triggs and Andrew Leigh point out in their 2019 article for the Federal Law Review: ‘a growing body of evidence suggests that the rise in inequality and the fall in competition are not merely coincidental’.62 Among other studies, they point to: • An analysis of eight economies63 that suggests that market power and higher prices increase the wealth of the richest 10% of the population in th. [...] 11 PER CAPITA SUBMISSION Competition at the root of the problem Implementing laws like Frances’s food waste law or changes to the ACL could help consumers with the consequences of excessive market power that major supermarkets have in Australia, but they do little to combat the root of the problem. [...] This puts Australian laws out of step with other regimes and makes it difficult for the ACCC to catch undesirable mergers.72 Indeed, early findings from the Federal Government’s Competition Review73 reveal that an alarming number of mergers involving Australian companies are escaping the notice of the ACCC due to the voluntary notification system.