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Join the call for stronger changes to improve remote food security

Together, we can show the government that thousands of people support strengthening the proposed food security strategy to improve access to fair and reasonably priced food in remote First Nations communities.

 

Add your name below:

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Fair and affordable food and grocery prices for everyone

No matter where we live, we should all have access to fairly priced food and groceries. But issues such as limited availability, high prices and poorly displayed prices mean that many living in remote First Nations communities often pay higher prices for lower quality food and groceries. 

The government has developed a food security strategy to improve access to food in remote First Nations communities – but it’s missing some key changes that could help reduce grocery prices, improve accessibility and help close the gap for First Nations people living in remote communities.

That’s why CHOICE and a coalition of organisations have made a submission urging the government to strengthen the strategy by also recommending a mandatory code of practice for remote stores, considering price caps on essential food and grocery items and introducing an accessible price monitoring tool with current and historical prices across remote community stores. 

If we can show the government that thousands of people have endorsed these changes, they’ll know they have overwhelming public support to make the strategy as strong as possible. Add your name in support of stronger changes to improve the affordability and accessibility of food and groceries in remote First Nations communities now. 

Join the call to improve remote food security now

Read the full submission

Read the joint submission from CHOICE, Consumer Credit Legal Service Western Australia (CCLSWA), Financial Counselling Australia (FCA), Financial Rights Legal Centre (FRLC), Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network (ICAN) and Mob Strong Debt Help (Mob Strong) to the National Strategy for Food Security in Remote First Nations Communities Consultation

Read the submission

FAQ

We urge the government to consider a number of measures that will help strengthen the strategy and improve access to food in remote First Nations communities, including:

  • A mandate to display prices in stores
  • Regulations for informal credit schemes such as book up 
  • Education around informal credit schemes such as book up 
  • Consider subsidies for freight across the country 
  • Raise the remote allowance payment 
  • A process for remote stores to be regularly monitored for quality and quantity of stock and prices 
  • Increase the availability of fee free ATMs in remote locations 
  • A mandate to provide signage at the front of every remote store that clearly conveys where consumers can complain if they have any issues 

CHOICE has been calling on the government to force supermarkets to make grocery pricing fair and transparent. We’ve been advocating for a number of changes, including: 

  • Banning unfair pricing practices, such as ‘member-only’ discounts 
  • Introducing rules about discounts or other promotions, and how these should be presented, to simplify price tags and remove ambiguous terms
  • Enforcing and expanding the Grocery Unit Pricing Code to make unit pricing easier to use and more effective
  • Requiring supermarkets to publish historical grocery pricing information so people can see how much a product has increased in price over time and to put ‘Was/Now’ pricing into context
  • Reforming competition and consumer laws to make sure the ACCC has the powers it needs to hold supermarkets to account

You can find the joint submission to the National Strategy for Food Security in Remote First Nations Communities Consultation here.

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