Federal Member for Chifley, Roger Price has welcomed the Rudd Government’s announcement to roll-out a nationally-consistent, mandatory unit pricing regime to help consumers save time and money.
“The Australian unit pricing scheme designed by the Rudd Government gets the balance right – by both empowering consumers and minimising the regulatory burden on business” Mr. Price said.
The Government’s commitment to unit pricing was made as part of its preliminary response to the ACCC Grocery inquiry. The unit pricing regime will apply to all packaged grocery items so that consumers will be able to use the information to find the best value and help make real savings on their weekly grocery bills.
Unit pricing is the display of the price of goods per unit measure, for example per 100 grams, per 100 millilitres, per metre or per item. Grocery shoppers will be familiar with unit pricing as it already applies to groceries sold by weight, such as fresh meat, vegetables and fruit.
“Unit pricing will help consumers compare packaged grocery items of different sizes easily and quickly especially where package sizes are similar but not identical”. Unit pricing is already used in the European Union and the United States of America. It has proven to be a popular and useful tool that enhances price transparency for consumers when making their purchasing decisions in supermarkets. The Government will undertake further consultation before finalising a code to be prescribed under the Trade Practices Act 1974. Details of the scheme are attached. The Government is also progressing the ACCC’s other recommendations in the Grocery Inquiry Report, and will make further announcements with respect to these recommendations by mid-2009. “This initiative will help shoppers make informed decisions during the global financial crisis” Mr. Price concluded.