The residents of the Torres Strait and other remote communities in North Queensland don’t have the supermarkets that many city and town dwellers are so used to. This means they pay higher prices for food items and have lower quality fresh food than is available in other parts of Australia.
Still, a report by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Indigenous Affairs in 2020 concluded: “The committee did not find evidence of systemic price-gouging in remote communities.” Instead, the committee heard that much of the reason for higher prices is the difficulty in transporting food to these communities, often from Brisbane or even further south.
The National Indigenous Australians Agency estimates that residents of remote communities pay 39 per cent more for supermarket supplies than consumers in capital cities, and the gap could be widening.
Some say the high cost of food and in particular for fresh food is having health impacts in these communities. Freight operators should work with the government to consider more frequent deliveries and to run more streamlined operations to reduce the touchpoints for delivery. Retailers could work to supply more information to the community and the government about their stock and try to sell a different range of products which are more suited to longer supply chains.
Source: theaustralian.com.au