From Townsville and Cairns bureaus
A new Woolworths grocery store will soon open in the Atherton Tablelands town of Mareeba leaving the recently-renovated independent IGA store in a precarious position, based on evidence from other towns across the nation where Woolies has moved in.
Local farmers supplying produce to IGA are expected to take a hit as Woolworths Fresh Food Market does not buy any goods locally, preferring to ship all its fruit and vegetables from farms and markets in southern Queensland, NSW or Victoria.
Member for Kennedy Bob Katter has long warned against the supermarket duopoly and first took aim at the predatory Coles and Woolies cartel many years ago for driving independent grocery shops and family corner stores out of business and monopolising farm produce and grocery prices.
The new store will be built on the long-vacant Rankin’s sawmill site which has frontage to the main street and is opposite the well-established Coles supermarket.
Bob Katter pleaded with shoppers not to support the cartel but to take into account local jobs and Tablelands farmers who are “screwed down on price” with Coles and Woolies supply contracts.
“I plead with every Australian to understand this. I know it’s easy to go to the bigger store, and when you think “food”, you think “Woolworths and Coles”. But it’s because you’ve been brainwashed; you see it on your TV over and over again: morning, noon and night,” Mr Katter said.
“People think more competition in the market is a good thing, but Woolworths and Coles don’t compete against each other and that’s one hell of a difference.”
Mr Katter said government needed to empower people against the corporate might of the supermarket oligopoly by legislating proposed laws the KAP has put to Parliament that make it illegal to hold more than 20 per cent market share, as well as a maximum 100% markup on the price of food.
“But don’t expect any mainstream MPs from the corporate-controlled major parties to be interested in concentration of market power where small businesses are being wiped out and the consumer pays five times as much.”
“The division I called last year on the Reducing Supermarket Dominance Bill 2024 saw the National Party abstain and the Liberal/Labor party oppose. So what does that tell you?!”
“It seems to me that you have a octopus like figure that wherever it sees a little freedom fish, it will grab it and squeeze the life out of it. And that is what is happening here. We are working hard on legislation that will force a maximum mark up on the price of food.”
Mareeba consumers should look hard at Woolies predatory business model which will see their ‘mystery shoppers’ visiting IGA and Coles two or three times a week taking photos of their specials and noting the prices of other goods.
Woolies then drops their prices below their opposition’s and can keep them down on common lines for months if necessary and continues the attack for however long it takes for the majority of shoppers to desert the independents and flock to the duopoly.
Then prices revert to their required level.
Independent grocers have long complained about the modus operandi of the cartel and have presented this evidence to Claytons government inquiries but the political duopoly will not rule against this massive market power.
IGA is about to close its supermarket at Kirwan in Townsville which had been in business for 20 years.
“The business is not a viable business to keep open. It is still early days after the announcement so we have not had much feedback but our regular customers are not happy,” Cornetts Supermarkets chief executive Graham Booysen said.
Woolworths and Coles have supermarkets close-by and the IGA store had been losing money for some time.
Staff have been offered positions in other stores.
Woolworths largest shareholder BlackRock controls over $12.5 trillion in assets under management (AUM) as of 2025, making it the world’s largest asset manager. This figure includes the firm’s management of private market assets and represents a record-high for the company.
Blackrock is a substantial shareholder in the Australian Woolworths Group (ASX: WOW), holding a 6.63% stake in the company as of July 31, 2025, representing approximately 80,972,196 shares worth around AU$2.2 billion. This positions Blackrock as one of the largest institutional investors in Woolworths, alongside other major firms like State Street Corporation and the Vanguard Group.
Why does Mareeba need such a monstrous financial oligarch to be controlling its food market?
Cairns News understands the shopping complex developers, Girgenti Group, has to submit final documentation regarding a $100,000 bank guarantee to allow Mareeba Shire Council to recommend freeholding of a 1100 sq metre block of land within the site and to comply with a condition that the foundations must be poured before October 27, 2026.
The current council does not oppose the project which was given original approval before the de-amalgamation of TRC and Mareeba shire councils in 2014.
Mareeba Mayor Angela Toppin and President of the Mareeba Fruit and Vegetable Growers Joe Moro have been contacted for comment.
