Corporate ‘Price Gouging’: Sleight of Hand for Troubled Economic Waters Ahead?

Commentary The “Inquiry into Price Gouging and Unfair Pricing Practices” is the latest ship to be launched in the Australian Council of Trade Union’s (ACTU) armada of misdirection to shift the blame for inflation from the real culprits—the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), and state and federal governments in combination with Labor unions—to business. It is probably no coincidence that it was released about the time the crossbench was waving through the government’s new, back-to-the-70s, “Closing the Loopholes” industrial relations bill. It’s cleverly done, superficial, and will easily slot into most journalists’ needs for a compelling narrative of heroes (trade unions), villains (business), and victims (the rest of us)—but it happens to be mostly wrong....