Grocery
People in capital cities paid AU$4.87 for a kilogram of apples, in Tiwi Islands the cost was AU$7.50 Pixabay

Communities in four First Nations stores across Western Australia and the Northern Territory were paying twice as much for essential grocery items compared to capital cities, an investigation by consumer advocacy organization CHOICE has revealed.

The inquiry found that the average price of nine essential items, including penne pasta, beef mince, teabags, carrots, and Weet-Bix, at Woolworths, Coles, Aldi, and IGA across all Australian capital cities was AU$44.70. In comparison, the same items cost AU$99.38 in the four remote communities, The Guardian reported.

In August, Choice purchased nine items from stores in the Great Sandy Desert and Pilbara regions of WA, as well as in the West Daly region and on the Tiwi Islands in the NT, and compared the prices to those in capital cities across Australia. Prices were the highest in the West Daly area.

While people in capital cities paid AU$4.87 for a kilogram of apples, in Tiwi Islands the cost was AU$7.50, Choice's Jarni Blakkarly said.

"Availability of food in the first place is also a big issue faced by people living in remote communities," he said. "At one store visited by our mystery shopper there was no bread to be found, and our shopper had to make do with frozen hotdog buns."

Blakkarly also pointed out that the prices on grocery store shelves often did not match the items, and, in some instances, fresh fruits and vegetables had no price displays at all.

The study also revealed that the communities were dealing with food insecurity due to high priced grocery items. "It was quite common for people to tell me that they often had to skip a meal or two meals at the end of the week because they didn't have enough money to buy food or they had to rely on friends or family," ABC quoted Blakkarly as saying.

The cost-of-living pressures had a greater impact on the remote communities, Blakkarly noted.

"There is a cohort of people living in these remote First Nations communities who are just doing it so much harder when it comes to being able to afford to put healthy and quality food in front of their families," he said.

According to Boandik woman and Mob Strong Debt Help financial counsellor Bettina Cooper, there was no regulatory framework in place to shield consumers from rising costs, nor any requirements for pricing in remote areas. She urged the federal government to ensure that prices were clearly displayed in remote stores, implement price monitoring tools, and establish price caps on essential items.

A federal inquiry launched in 2020 revealed a "tenuous" supply of affordable and nutritious food to many remote communities. This issue had continued despite several earlier investigations into food access. A key recommendation from the inquiry was for the government to establish real-time price monitoring in all remote community stores and to make this information available to the public.

CHOICE is expected to submit its findings next month at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's supermarkets inquiry.