It’s just a little over five years since the final report of the banking royal commission – which was damning. But just as damaging to the banks was the protracted lead-up to the creation of the commission in 2017. Through many months, pressure rose as public anger was vented via politicians, as Labor, then the Nationals, then the Liberal Party folded to the Greens push.

One would think that media storm might have been a warning to other massive businesses in Australia. In fact, it didn’t even seem to work as a warning to the banks. Earlier this year, the Commonwealth Bank was fined for underpaying more than 7000 workers – a practice that continued after the commission report was handed down. Last year, BHP admitted it had underpaid 28,000 workers. Qantas, meanwhile, underpaid workers, and began selling tickets on flights that had been cancelled; last week, the ACCC stated that senior management knew about these “ghost flights”.

Illustration: Joe BenkeCredit:

Then you have last week’s other major revelation from the ACCC: that it was taking Coles and Woolworths to court over allegations they had raised prices, then cut them a little, and called that a discount despite the fact it was higher than the original price. To illustrate, the ACCC said for two years Coles sold Strepsils for $5.50. Then, for a month, it raised the price to $7. Then it changed the price to $6 and promoted this as a reduction.

A free market should correct all this, right? Customers or workers find out about such abuses and go elsewhere. But what do you do when there........

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