The NFF Horticulture Council has today made a direct appeal to supermarket shareholders to ensure their boards and executives engage in good faith with the ACCC supermarket inquiry, with an interim report due at the end of the month.
Council Chair Jolyon Burnett said it was increasingly apparent shareholders would have a role to play in bringing supermarket buying behaviours back in line with community expectations, with leadership from executive ranks lacking.
"Today marks the start of August. Before the end of the month, we'll have in our hands the interim report from the ACCC as part of their inquiry into the supermarkets," said Mr Burnett.
"The public, politicians and regulators are in no doubt that supermarkets, with unprecedented bargaining power, have an overriding objective to maximise profits. Combine this with no effective regulation, repercussions or prospect of being caught, they have been engaging in behaviour and practices that are unscrupulous.
"So, it will be interesting to see how far this interim report goes in painting this picture and detailing any wrongdoing.
"What the report may reveal in any absence of detail is the extent to which supermarkets have been fully complying with lawful requests of the ACCC for data and information they need to undertake the inquiry.
"We are concerned that each supermarket has engaged a phalanx of lawyers and lobbyists with the sole task of avoiding or obstructing these requests with a view to minimising any further exposures.
"All we've seen to date from supermarket leaders is denial and deflection as part of an obvious strategy to simply ride out the storm.
"The problem with that strategy is the assumption the focus on their behaviour is some sort of passing weather event and not the start of long-term change in the climate of public opinion.
"The Council is calling on shareholders during the upcoming AGM season to hold their boards and executives to account, on their strategy to date, the lack of contrition and accountability shown, and investments made in lawyers and lobbyists for dubious results.
"If not directors and executives, then shareholders must see engaging with the ACCC inquiry not as a threat or obstacle, but the mechanism by which more ethical, sustainable, and ultimately more profitable supermarket businesses will be built in this country.
"The stage is set for shareholders to step up."
