Australia’s favourite chocolate biscuit selling for less overseas than at home has attracted the ire of the Nationals leader.
A packet of Tim Tams is more expensive in Australia compared with a Canadian supermarket, Matt Canavan claims.
The politician says the $A6, or thereabouts, he paid at a Woolworths eclipses the typical $A4.10 Walmart price tag.
“I mean, in the words of the Simpsons, did we lose a war?” he quipped at the LNP’s annual state conference in Brisbane on Saturday.
“We should have these cheaper than anyone else.”
In his speech to party faithful, Senator Canavan seized on the sugary injustice to criticise the Labor government’s economic policies, particularly a failure to deliver a promised $275 cut to power bills.
High energy prices push up manufacturing costs, he says, translating to expensive locally made sweet treats.
Under coalition policy, net zero targets would be ditched, the moratorium on nuclear overturned, and domestic coal and gas resources dug and drilled in the pursuit of “abundant, affordable” energy.
It would mark a departure from Labor’s policy of a solar and wind-powered grid, supported by storage, a path it expects will deliver on climate commitments at the least cost, with CSIRO modelling backing renewables as the cheapest source of new generation.
It’s not the first time the matter of cheaper biscuits abroad has come up.
In 2024, Liberal senator Jane Hume queried Coles and Woolworths representatives at a parliamentary inquiry about better Tim Tam deals found in United Kingdom supermarket chain Tesco.
At the time, a spokesperson from manufacturer Arnott’s disputed the discrepancy and said Australian consumers paid less for the product than in the UK, on average.
Grocery pricing is influenced by multiple factors.
Price tags differ from place to place to reflect variances in overheads, regulation, competition, corporate strategy and capacity to pay, with wealthier neighbourhoods often charged more.
Tim Tams also featured in the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s legal proceedings in recent years against the big supermarket chains alleging fake discounts.
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