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The Australian government is tightening regulation of the country’s powerful supermarkets, with the threat of potentially billions of dollars in fines if they squeeze farmers and other suppliers on price. 

The government said it would push through legislation to enforce a mandatory code of conduct on large food retailers, including Woolworths and Coles Group, which control about 65 per cent of the market. Breaches would result in fines ranging from A$10mn (US$6.6mn) to up to 10 per cent of turnover over a year-long period.

Michael Simotas, an analyst with bank Jefferies, said the penalties for bad behaviour could be as much as A$5bn for Woolworths and A$4bn for Coles. He expected the companies would remain “front and centre of media and political commentary”.

Jim Chalmers, Australia’s treasurer, said: “We’re cracking down on anti-competitive behaviour in the supermarkets sector so people get fairer prices at the checkout.” 

The move to replace a voluntary code with a mandatory one comes as a cost of living crisis and persistent inflation have put many household budgets under strain.

It follows a review conducted by former cabinet minister Craig Emerson, with the retail sector finding itself in the spotlight over alleged price gouging for products including fresh fruit and vegetables over the past two years. Those price increases have not been passed on to farmers and other suppliers.

The proposed legislation would apply to companies with annual sales of more than A$5bn, including Aldi and smaller player Metcash. Companies including Costco and Amazon could be covered by the code in the future based on their growth rates and the expansion of their product lines.

Allegations of price gouging and the poor treatment of suppliers have led to increased scrutiny of supermarkets, with calls growing in recent years to break up the largest companies to improve competition.

Woolworths’ longtime chief executive Brad Banducci announced his retirement this year, days after a fractious interview with broadcaster ABC on price gouging. He later appeared in front of a Senate committee in Canberra and was threatened with jail for refusing to detail certain financial metrics to MPs who questioned whether a true reflection of the retail sector’s profitability was being provided.

The government has stopped short of proposing a break-up but wants to set up an anonymous whistleblower and supplier complaint mechanism within Australia’s consumer watchdog.

Woolworths said in a statement it would support a mandatory code of conduct. On ideas such as a price register to improve transparency over fresh fruit and vegetable prices, which have soared in recent years, it said it would study the proposals in detail.

“While there is broad support for greater price transparency in the sector, there isn’t yet consensus on how to deliver it,” it said.

Coles said in a statement: “Coles has worked collaboratively with Dr Emerson in his review to strengthen the Code. We will consider the final recommendations and Government’s response in detail, and we remain committed to supporting a healthy and sustainable grocery sector.”

Jolyon Burnett, chair of the National Farmers Federation’s Horticulture Council, said the review and government proposals had left “a clear impression of the raw deals our growers are getting with supermarkets” and that the recommendations provided a “rare opportunity to reform our markets”.

Wimberly Muñoz, a Venezuelan migrant waited at the Chaparral pedestrian border in Tijuana, Mexico to cross into the US. She is traveling with her mother, Ana Muñoz, right, and son Matia Muñoz.

Carlos A. Moreno/NPR

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Carlos A. Moreno/NPR

Wimberly Muñoz, a Venezuelan migrant waited at the Chaparral pedestrian border in Tijuana, Mexico to cross into the US. She is traveling with her mother, Ana Muñoz, right, and son Matia Muñoz.

Carlos A. Moreno/NPR

In early June, President Joe Biden severely restricted asylum requests from migrants attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border without authorization.

Two weeks later, the President struck a more welcoming tone, saying he’d protect hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens.

Immigration has become a big issue, for both parties. Policy experts say Biden hopes that in a close election year, these executive actions will sway voters to his side.

But will that strategy pay off and how will it affect migrants?

NPR’s Adrian Florido speaks with immigration correspondent Jasmine Garsd who is reporting from the San Diego border with Mexico.

For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

This episode was produced by Brianna Scott and Kathryn Fink.

It was edited by Jeanette Woods.

Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.

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Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the end of the “intense phase” of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza was “very close”, and that Israel would soon redeploy forces to its northern border where it has been trading near-daily fire with the Lebanese militant group Hizbollah.

In an interview with Israel’s Channel 14, the Israeli prime minister said the end of this phase of fighting in the enclave would not spell the end of the war. He insisted that Israel would continue until it had destroyed Hamas and freed the roughly 120 hostages the militant group still holds.

But he said the switch to lower-intensity conflict there would give Israel “the possibility to shift some of our capabilities” to the north, where cross-border fire between Israeli forces and Iran-backed Hizbollah has escalated sharply in recent weeks.

“We will do this, first and foremost for defensive purposes. And secondly, to allow our residents to return home,” Netanyahu said, referring to the roughly 60,000 Israelis who have been evacuated from northern Israel since the start of the war.

“If we can do this diplomatically, great. If not, we will do it another way. But we will bring everyone back home.”

Netanyahu said he hoped a full-blown war with Hizbollah, one of the world’s most heavily armed non-state actors, could be averted. But he said Israel would “meet this challenge” of fighting on multiple fronts if needed.

“We can fight on several fronts. We are prepared for this,” he said.

In a wide-ranging interview — his first with Hebrew media for 14 months — Netanyahu also ruled out the prospect of Israel re-establishing settlements in Gaza once the war with Hamas was over, and said that while he was prepared to countenance a brief truce to free hostages, Israel would resume fighting afterwards.

“I’m willing to do a partial deal that will return to us a portion of the [hostages], but we are committed to continuing the war after a pause in order to fulfil the war’s objectives,” he said.

Despite the intensifying exchanges between Israeli forces and Hizbollah, which have displaced tens of thousands of people and caused casualties in Lebanon and Israel, the two sides have not been drawn into all-out war, with the US leading a diplomatic push to de-escalate the situation.

However, Israeli officials have repeatedly said they are prepared to take military action in the absence of a diplomatic resolution to the stand-off, and the Israeli military said last week that senior officers had approved “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon”.

That warning came after Hizbollah released a nine-minute video of what it said was footage gathered by its surveillance drones of Israeli military and civilian infrastructure in the north of the country, including the port in Haifa.

Diplomats briefed on the US-led talks to de-escalate the tensions between Israel and Hizbollah — which fought a 34-day war in 2006 — say a deal would involve Hizbollah withdrawing its forces from the border, and the resolution of a series of territorial disputes between Israel and Lebanon.

Netanyahu told Channel 14 that two senior Israeli officials who visited Washington last week had expressed hope that a diplomatic solution could still be reached. But he said Israel would ensure that Hizbollah’s forces did indeed withdraw from the border.

“It won’t be an agreement on paper,” he said. “It will include the physical distancing of Hizbollah from the border, and we will need to enforce it.”