Former MP and Green Institute head pitches plan to nationalise 200 supermarkets

More than 200 Coles and Woolworths supermarkets would be nationalised, and hundreds of government grocery stores opened, under a $25bn plan being put forward by former Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather.

Channelling New York mayor Zohran Mamdani’s plan for publicly owned grocery stores, Chandler-Mather wants to use new forced divestiture laws to take over major supermarket sites and three distribution centres. The government would fund another 424 new supermarkets and 10 distribution centres, taking about 20% of the market share of commercial operators for the new non-profit network.

A statutory authority would be established to set prices each month, as well as minimum wholesale rates for suppliers. Its members would include experts in supermarket operations, nutrition and food science, and farming. The federal government would pay for capital costs including land, construction, and acquisition, and stores would be located in areas of the highest need.

The Green Institute commissioned pollsters YouGov to test public support for the proposal last month, with background on Mamdani’s plan for government-owned stores that cut out profits made by private corporations. Chandler-Mather explained that Labor has allowed Coles and Woolworths to jack up prices for extra profit regardless of the human consequences, and so it’s time everyone has a public option for food.