WEBVTT - Nick McKenzie on CFMEU corruption and Labor’s blind eye 0:00:00.920 --> 0:00:05.760 Having been in the trenches investigating this corruption scandal for 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:09.080 two years, I mean my capacity for shop is probably 0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:11.000 somewhat less than the average person. 0:00:11.480 --> 0:00:14.920 Nick mackenzie has been digging into allegations of corruption in 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:19.600 the CFMEU Construction Union since twenty twenty four. It's a 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:23.800 powerful union meant to protect workers. Instead it's been accused 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:27.720 of running a racket with Biki gangs and criminals ripping 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:31.520 billions of dollars out of government funded projects. Now a 0:00:31.640 --> 0:00:34.360 report has laid bare the scale of it all. 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:37.760 We've looked at a Biki gang infiltrating a government job 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:41.199 over here, We've looked at Italian organized crime infiltrating a 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:44.639 government project over there. But to see it all in 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:49.680 one place, it was a tremendous dumping of shocking allegation, 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:53.640 shocking conclusions, all leading in one direction. Which is why 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:55.480 the hell was this allowed to go on at such 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:57.720 scale and why has no one in a political class 0:00:57.720 --> 0:00:58.639 been held to account. 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:02.720 The report's author, Barrister Jeffrey Watson, not only tore the 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:06.000 cfm E you to shreds, but also claimed the Victorian 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:09.160 government knew about the problems and did nothing about it. 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:11.839 So if somebody had stomped on it earlier, the problem 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:15.480 would have been fixed earlier. Now who had that responsibility? 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:18.920 Bearing in mind these were government projects, Bearing in mind 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:21.280 these were taxpayers dollars being spent. 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:25.120 But that section of Watson's report, the question the Victorian 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:29.240 labor government, was deleted before the report was published. 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:32.080 You wouldn't believe this by looking up people. But I 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:35.720 am a very bad tempered, petulant person, and I can 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:40.720 erupt at a moment's notice, and I was really actually 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:42.080 quite angry. 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:43.880 So is this a cover up? 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:51.440 I'm Nicole Johnston and you're listening to seven AM today 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:57.240 nine Newspapers investigative reporter Nick McKenzie on contracts, kickbacks and 0:01:57.280 --> 0:02:00.560 building site strippers. How did the rod take route in 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:06.960 the construction industry. It's Tuesday, February seventeen. 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:12.320 Nick. 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:15.320 It's about two years ago since you first broke the 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:19.080 story of what you called an unholy alliance between gangland 0:02:19.120 --> 0:02:24.720 figures and the CFMU. You know, bikeys, gangsters infiltrating unions 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:28.799 and given powerful positions, often on those government funded projects. 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:32.200 Now we've found out that there's even more going on. 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:35.480 What do we know, Well, it's it's like a bad, 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:39.559 sort of crazy Hollywood script. The latest set of allegations 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:42.560 in terms of the depth of criminal infiltration, of the 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:46.600 involvement of bikis, of bribery, of corruption, and drug trafficking 0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:52.600 on government sites, women allegedly being forced to perform sex 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:56.600 acts to get work, or stripping in site sheds. But 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:59.720 at the core of all this, and perhaps most seriously, 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:03.320 is this conclusion from an anti corruption expert that the 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:06.400 Victorian labor government not only had a duty to know 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:09.000 this was going on in their government projects, but did 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:11.560 know and did nothing about it. So it turned a 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:15.120 blind eye effectively, and the cost of this failure to 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:19.320 combat this crime and corruption, according to this anti cruption expert, 0:03:19.400 --> 0:03:24.440 Jeffrey Watson SC is a studying fifteen billion dollars in 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:26.800 Victorian taxpayer and federal taxpayer money. 0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:29.240 So all of this came out of the Queensland Inquiry 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:33.880 into CFMU corruption where Jeffrey Watson testified. Can you tell 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:35.440 us a bit more about what he said? 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:39.040 Well, Jeffy Watson sc is a very well known corruption buster. 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:43.960 He's best known previously for his work with the Ikak 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:46.800 in New South Wales, bringing down both labor and liberal 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:50.400 politicians and political figures, and what's his job is really 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:53.920 what is the scale, what is the scope of the 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:56.600 corruption of the c if me, what's happened, what's gone wrong? 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:01.200 He testified to reveal for the first time the findings 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:03.880 of this big eighteen month inquiry into what went wrong 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:04.800 in Victoria. 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:07.119 How bad did things get in Victoria? 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:08.920 Oh my god, it's out of control. 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:11.240 So that happened last week and it was absolutely stunning 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:14.840 because what Watson found is breathtaking. I've never read a 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:20.880 corruption report quite so jaw dropping as Watson's report gone. 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:23.440 As all this sort of polite language, it's just a 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:29.120 catalog of shocking biky corruption, union corruption, corporate corruption. 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:33.320 A man who had killed somebody was released from jail 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:37.320 and almost immediately appointed a health and safety representative of 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:39.280 the Victorian branch of the CFU. 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:43.599 He was extremely force, right on the stand, laying out 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:46.680 who the baddies are, calling out gangland figures such as 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:52.240 Mick gadovery infamous gangland figure, and really, I think, pointedly 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:56.080 and importantly describing how parts of his report had been 0:04:56.200 --> 0:05:01.159 changed to remove a politically sensored material or something that 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:04.560 he said he was very angry about. And that's content 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:07.599 that reflected poorly, mostly in the Victoria Labor government. 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:08.520 Who took them out? 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:11.160 And why that they were removed by the sea from 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:14.279 the administrative marker of in case now, he's a senior barrister. 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:17.360 He was appointed by the Albanese government when our allegations 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:20.360 first hit the press back in twenty twenty four. Irving's 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:22.280 job is to take over the union, to get rid 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:25.479 of the old ruling part of the union, to sack 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:29.839 a bunch of officials for poor performance, for corruption, etc. 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:31.000 And he's done that. 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:34.520 But in this case, and keeping in mind is a 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:39.760 Labor Party appointee, he stripped these two critical parts of 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:43.960 the report that were most damaging to labor. Irving says 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:46.600 he removed those parts of the report because he felt 0:05:46.640 --> 0:05:50.120 they were ill founded. There wasn't a basis for which, 0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:52.960 a proper basis for which Jeffrey Watchin should estimate that 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:57.479 fifteen billion dollars of taxpayer money was wasted or ended 0:05:57.560 --> 0:05:59.400 up in the pockets of biky Games. 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:03.800 Sure, it's speculative. It's speculative to say the sun will 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:07.120 come up tomorrow. When you read the simple points which 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:10.359 I had made in the original version of the report, 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:14.920 I would have thought the primary criticism of it would 0:06:14.960 --> 0:06:17.960 have been that it was a statement of the bleeding obvious. 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:20.640 The head of the Fair Work Commission, Murray Furlong, as 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:23.000 a public servant, has backed that figure most recently. 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:24.200 That figure is. 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:29.520 Is consistent with what I've heard from officials from the 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:30.360 Victorian government. 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:33.000 And this is where it's really serious, I think, not 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:36.720 just for Irving, but for labor federally in state. What 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:39.960 we're seeing is that this scandal has gone so far. 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:42.640 We know that corrupt union officials have been operating it. 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:45.520 I've been turfed out, we know Gangland figures are deeply involved, 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:49.520 they've been exposed, But not a single public servant and 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:54.279 not a single politician has been meaningfully held to account 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:58.560 for their role overseeing projects where all this bad behavior 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:01.320 took place at the expense the taxpayer. And that's the 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:03.560 big missing part here and that's what I think the 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:07.760 removal of these parts of this report really underscores, you know, 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:10.360 all the accountability that we're yet to see in this 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:12.520 rolling and still very big scandal. 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:16.360 So Nick, would you go as far to say that 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:18.560 this is a cover up? And is there any doubt 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:22.120 in your mind that the Victorian government new organized crime 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:25.520 had infiltrated government projects and then didn't act. 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:28.000 Well, there's two choices, isn't there The government was either 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:31.560 so incompetent it didn't know biking bosses were working on 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:36.120 its projects, or it knew and turn a blind eye. 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:38.480 They're the two choices. I think about this. If your 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:41.720 listeners are building a house and one day one of 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:46.000 the subcontractors building and doing the tiling is replaced by 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:49.400 a biker who rocks up and charges w amount, I 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:52.400 mean you'd likely be making some pretty serious inquiries about 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:54.960 why that's going on. It's the same thing was happening 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:59.040 on state government projects, except at a vastly greater scale. 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:02.040 So how could the not know about that? Edit duties 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:03.760 know about that taxpayer money. 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:07.040 It's responsible for making sure organized crime doesn't take hold. 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:10.440 There is a huge amount of evidence that shows the government, 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:12.960 to some extent at least did know this was going on. 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:18.760 We know there's documents internally which raise allegations of blackmail, extortion, and. 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:19.800 Now it's saying it didn't know. 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:22.320 The Premier of Victoria just interallled and saying I didn't 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:24.320 know until it hit the media. I mean that is 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:28.880 quite clearly, blogoney. So certainly we deserve to know how 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:31.239 much the government knew. We deserve to know the extent 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:33.920 of that government in competence and failure to act on 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:36.520 organized crime. And while we don't know, there's a cover 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:38.920 up in place, and that cover up remains in place 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:39.840 as I speak here. 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:45.000 Right now, coming up, how far has the rot spread 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:58.560 outside Victoria? So, Nick, what has the Victorian government said 0:08:58.559 --> 0:08:59.920 about the allegation so far? 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:03.720 Have they said anything? Whenever we reveal. 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:06.520 More of this corruption and crime we hear the same 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:09.360 thing or terrible. We don't like corruption and crime, says 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:12.480 the Victorian premier in the government. It's appalling. It should 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:15.280 be referred to the authorities. And they said that again 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:18.280 last week in response to this latest eruption. 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:22.320 When allegations were raised with me, they were referred to 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:26.800 the relevant authority for their investigation. I have said that 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:31.840 on previous occasions. Then when the media reports around the 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:36.200 widespread nature of this rotten culture became public in the 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:39.840 middle of twenty twenty four, we acted immediately. 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:44.520 It just handles this shit samage to the Victorian police 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:46.840 and to other authorities and says, well, you make of 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:48.599 it what you will. That's never going to get to 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:51.600 the bottom of this. I mean, the Victorian Police do 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:55.320 a fine job, but like every state police force around 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:57.920 this country, they're utterly stretched. And it's not the job 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:00.920 of the Victorian police to ask the question order to 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:04.679 answer it. What did politicians know about corruption? Did they 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:06.480 enable it by failing to act on it? What do 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:09.400 the bureaucrats know about corruption? How did this corruption work? 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:14.120 That These are questions that for well outside the duties 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:17.280 of the Victoria Police Force. Their question is normally left 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:20.760 for some proper inquiry, a commission of inquiry, a royal commission. 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:24.080 So while there is a strong comment from Victoria Labor government, 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:27.439 it's actually very very weak in substance. 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:29.720 And let's not forget this. 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:33.200 The minister responsible for many of these projects while they 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:36.080 were hosting this corruption and crime wasn't another than the 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:38.719 Premier just Cinter Allen. She was the Transport and Infrastructure 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:41.800 minister in charge of these major government projects. While the 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:45.640 infiltration of organized crime, of biokis, of corrupt unionits occurred, 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:48.439 it happened under her watch. And so that system of 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:52.840 Westminster accountability, the bucks should stop at the top. And 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:54.520 that might be the reason why we're not having a 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:57.439 proper system of accountability in place to ask those critical 0:10:57.520 --> 0:10:59.960 questions who in government knew what and when and why 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:00.800 didn't they act. 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:03.280 A lot of the focus has been on what's been 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:08.120 going on in Victoria's CFMU, but Queensland, as we know, 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:10.719 is looking into the union there as well. It's had 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:14.640 its own commission of inquiry. So how widespread do you 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:18.040 think corruption is across the construction industry. 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:19.680 It's vastly widespread. 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:23.199 We've seen very significant cases of organized crime infiltration and 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:28.719 corp union operations in New South Wales, to a lesser extent, Queensland, 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:31.960 and certainly to a massive extent in Victoria. There's issues 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:36.079 in WA, there's issues in South Australia. This has been 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:40.280 a festering problem in Australia for decades. But there is 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:43.040 some silver linings the Victorian police. The police in Victoria 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:45.240 are doing a good job finally having a. 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:47.199 Crack at some of these criminal elements. 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:49.760 But the same thing is not happening in New South 0:11:49.760 --> 0:11:52.520 Wales and Queensland and elsewhere where. 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:53.960 Why is it such a problem. 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:58.280 Well, we've had decades long issue of organized crime of 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:02.280 union corruption on construction sites. It must be said that 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:05.640 this can't happen without corrupt corporates. This is as much 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:08.880 a union problem as it is a company problem, and 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:11.319 it's a problem that we've seen overseas, most famously in 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:14.720 the United States, the FBI had mega task forces set 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:17.800 up to crack down on the unions working with the 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:20.520 mafia in New York and other places to corrupt the 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:21.920 construction industry there. 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:24.000 So we're group of it. In Australia. 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:27.480 It's starting to have some real political consequence now and 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:30.960 maybe now this is the moment for change. Will we 0:12:31.000 --> 0:12:33.199 have a proper cleanup of the sector, this vital sector 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:36.760 in Australia or will in five years will we be 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:40.400 reading the very same headlines we've been reading most recently. 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:43.720 Nick, since you started investigating this a couple of years ago. 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:46.480 There have been some attempts to clean up the industry, 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:51.040 but from what you're saying, it sounds like nothing's really changed. 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:54.360 I mean there are there has been some significant change 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:57.000 of that must be said. So the bosses of the 0:12:57.040 --> 0:13:00.520 c for me, you that oversaw this corrupt mess, this 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:04.240 infiltration of organized crime into government projects, they've been turfed out, 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:08.760 They've left John Sector's gone, his executive. 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:10.120 Has gone in New South Wales. 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:12.680 Darren Greenfield, the former boss of this evening, he literally 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:15.120 is sitting in jail right now for taking bribes. So 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:18.800 we've had some corrupt elements removed, but what we've not 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:22.400 had is a proper, in depth cleanup of the sort 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:26.240 that will lead to sustainable, long term change. Companies that 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:30.240 have been part of this racket, they've faced a zero accountability. 0:13:31.000 --> 0:13:34.560 Largely police aren't doing enough. There is some good work 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:36.520 by the federal police. There's some great work by the 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:41.080 Victorian police. But around the country the police it's like 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:44.440 squeezing water with your hands, you just displace it. There's 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:47.480 not enough police action, there's not enough regulatory action, there's 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:48.200 not enough a. 0:13:48.280 --> 0:13:51.040 System wide cleaner. Why does this matter? 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:53.280 I mean, this is money that me and you are 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:56.960 spending as taxpayers on these government projects. So our money 0:13:57.040 --> 0:13:59.680 is being wasted. It could be going into health, education, 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:02.520 ex it's not. It's going to the pockets of bikis. 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:05.800 We want a fair and level playing field for businesses, 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:08.080 for workers in construction. Everybody listened to this will know 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:10.240 somebody in one way or another who works in. 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:11.600 The construction industry. 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:14.400 It's a massive employer in this country, from the lowly 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:19.440 workers holding traffic signs, to subcontractors to big building companies 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:23.000 to union officials. It's a vast part of our economy 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:25.160 and we deserve it to be clean. It shouldn't be 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:30.000 infiltrated by organized crime. But perhaps the biggest reason is 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:33.920 when we have a corrupt union infects government, it leads 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:35.280 for bad political outcomes. 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:37.280 It leads for people in parliament who should not be 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:37.880 in parliament. 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:40.520 To see, if me, you sponsored people into our states 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:43.360 and federal parliaments for many years, should they be there. 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:47.200 So we as voters were as citizens, deserve better and 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:48.480 we deserve a proper clean out. 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:49.640 And that's why it's so important. 0:14:51.040 --> 0:15:08.280 Nick, thanks for speaking with us. Also in the news, 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:11.240 Navid Akrim, the man accused of taking part in the 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:14.400 Bondai terror attack, has appeared at a Sydney court via 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:18.240 video link. The twenty four year old faces fifty nine charges, 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:21.600 including fifteen counts of murder and one of committing a 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:25.640 terrorist attack over the shooting in December. Akram's father was 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:27.760 shot dead by police at the scene of the attack, 0:15:28.160 --> 0:15:31.200 which took place during a Jewish Harniker by the Sea event. 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:34.320 Akram's lawyer says it's too early to say how his 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:39.520 climb will plead and supermarket giant Coles has been accused 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:43.680 of a planned campaign to mislead customers over price discounts. 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:46.760 In a case now before the federal court, the consumer 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:50.720 watchdog the A Triple C is suing the supermarket, claiming 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:53.960 it ripped off customers by hiking prices for a short 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:57.800 period of time before dropping them for their down Down promotion. 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:02.280 Coles argues the price rises were justified, citing high inflation 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:06.480 and supply demands. I'm Nicole Johnston. This is seven a m. 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:07.600 Catch you tomorrow.