Egg price guesses split leaders of major parties

Over at Coles, a dozen free-range eggs from Sunny Queen Farms costs $8.50, while the same number of “big brekkie browns” eggs from the same farm costs $10.20.

Those more inclined to organic produce will find a carton of 10 Pirovic free-range jumbo eggs from Harris Farm Markets for $12.99. The same number of organic jumbo eggs from Pirovic costs $16.49.

When asked on Monday about whether his $4.20 guess was a bad look, Dutton ducked the question. “Well, I think the point most families have made to us is the cost of everything has come up,” he said.

Dr Jill Sheppard, a senior lecturer of politics at the Australian National University (ANU), said voters had already made up their minds at this point in the campaign.

“If they think Dutton is out of touch and too precious to do the grocery shopping, they already think that about him,” she said.

“It’s a competence issue. In the absence of a large-scale policy platform, competence is all you have, an ability to deal with things as they arrive.”

Former prime ministers have been caught out on similar questions about basic pantry items. In 2022, Scott Morrison was asked about the price of a loaf of bread, a litre of petrol and a COVID-19 rapid antigen test.

“I’m not going to pretend to you that I go out each day and I buy a loaf of bread and I buy a litre of milk,” Morrison told Sky News’ Andrew Clennell at the National Press Club. “I’m not going to pretend to you that I do that.”

Going back into the history archives, John Howard and Paul Keating were asked by Ray Martin about the price of a litre of milk.

“About $1.30,” said Keating. “No, $1.07 when I last bought it,” Howard cut in. “$1.20,” responded Keating.

Albanese has cut a more confident figure on the federal election campaign trail than how he began his 2022 campaign, during which he stumbled on the national interest rate and unemployment rate.

Coles and Woolworths have imposed purchase limits of two cartons per customer in some states, while Aldi has not posed any restrictions. Ritchies IGA introduced purchase limits in Victoria mid-last year.

Egg farmer and former Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) vice president Danyel Cucinotta previously said there were some misconceptions that egg farmers were price-gouging.

Under the best-case scenario, supply isn’t expected to normalise for at least another six months, but this could stretch as long as “two to three years minimum” for the egg-laying flock to recover.

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One interesting issue around egg prices is the sensitivities involved in talking about it.

Multiple industry groups this masthead spoke to, including Egg Farmers of Australia, pointed to restrictions imposed by the ACCC in discussing egg prices.

An ACCC spokesperson said businesses had to set prices independently. “Discussions between competitors in relation to pricing can give rise to concerns under either the cartel or concerted practices provisions of the Competition and Consumer Act [CCA],” the spokesperson said.

“Breaching these provisions of the CCA can attract civil liability [and/or criminal liability in the case of cartel conduct].”