A new investigation from CHOICE has found groceries in some remote First Nations communities cost more than twice as much when compared to capital cities.
CHOICE conducted a mystery shop at four remote community stores, two in Western Australia and two in the Northern Territory, and purchased a list of nine basic items, including essentials such as milk, pasta, and flour.
"Our mystery shop revealed that people living in the four remote First Nations communities we looked at are paying more than twice as much for their groceries than people living in capital cities," says CHOICE investigative journalist, Jarni Blakkarly.
"The basket of nine items, all of which can be considered essentials, cost $44.70 when averaged out across Woolworths, Coles, Aldi and IGA across all capital cities. The average price of the basket in the four remote communities was more than double that, coming in at $99.38," says Blakkarly.
The highest price CHOICE found was in the West Daly area, where the basket of nine items cost $110.82.
"The price differences between identical items in remote communities and capital cities is pretty astounding. In capital cities, for example, you'll pay on average $4.87 for a kilo of apples. At the store we visited on the Tiwi Islands, people are paying $7.50 a kilo. At the West Daly store, apples will set you back $9.10 per kilo," says Blakkarly.
"Availability of food in the first place is also a big issue faced by people living in remote communities. At one store visited by our mystery shopper there was no bread to be found, and our shopper had to make do with frozen hot dog buns," says Blakkarly.
Earlier this year, CHOICE - in partnership with First Nations organisations such as Mob Strong Debt Help and the Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network - made a submission to the National Strategy for Food Security in Remote First Nations Communities Consultation. CHOICE has also provided this submission to the ACCC Supermarkets Inquiry.
The submission called on the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) to strengthen its recommendations to better protect residents in remote areas, including exploring price caps on essential items in consultation with community and mandating pricing information on all items.
"Every Australian should be able to access food and groceries at fair and reasonable prices regardless of where they live, but our investigation highlights that food insecurity and exorbitantly high prices are a significant issue in remote communities across the country," says Blakkarly.
Video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C913irNY7t0
Editor's notes:
To gather a sample of the price gap between the costs of goods in urban centres and remote First Nations communities, CHOICE mystery shopped four remote community stores in August 2024, two in Western Australia and two in the Northern Territory.
The Western Australian stores were in the Great Sandy Desert and the Pilbara, while the Northern Territory shops were in the West Daly region and on the Tiwi Islands. In each of the four communities we purchased a list of nine basic items and compared the cost of the basket to identical items from capital cities around Australia.
This investigation is not part of the quarterly, government-funded supermarket reports published by CHOICE.
The items in our grocery basket were:
- Apples
- Carrots
- Weet-Bix
- Flour
- Penne
- Tea bags
- Block of tasty cheese
- Full-cream dairy milk
- Beef mince
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