COVER STORY PRICE-GOUGING PRACTICES • MONEY-SAVING METHODS • THE LOYALTY PENALTY
As Australians grapple with a cost-of living crunch, some of our biggest companies have been reporting record profits. Now it's time for us to take action.
Since mid-2021, we've seen prices soar, with inflation hitting 7.8% in late 2022. It has meant we are paying more for groceries, airfares, energy – pretty much everything.
In a bid to tame inflation, the Reserve Bank has raised interest rates 13 times since May 2022. Sure, it pushed inflation down to 3.4% for the 12 months to January, but at considerable cost to households.
Research platform Finder has revealed that one in three (35%) homeowners is struggling to pay their mortgage. More of us are forced to dip into savings to get by, to the point where one in three people doesn't have a dollar in their emergency savings fund.
But not everyone is feeling the pinch.
While households have scrimped, some of Australia's biggest companies are raking in the cash.
Supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles increased margins to record strong profits ($1.6 billion and $1.1 billion, respectively) in the 2022-23 financial year.
As airfares hit a 15-year high in December 2022, Qantas recorded a 2023 profit of $2.5 billion. Australian petroleum company Ampol recently announced an operating profit of $1.7 billion, with earnings that were the second highest in the company's history, in a year when motorists were often paying $2-plus per litre at the bowser.
These results may be great news for shareholders, but the cruel twist for consumers
