Of course, government ministers will bleat there was no explicit promise apart from setting up a website, but the expectation was created, no more nor less than John Howard created during the 2004 campaign the expectation of continued low interest rates.
The folly of FuelWatch to keep petrol prices down was headed off by the Coalition, but the calamity of Grocery Choice was left to prosper.
A website that didn’t provide real-time grocery price comparisons was useless from day one. Furthermore, Grocery Choice provided only averages for some supermarkets in a region, which were meaningless to shoppers such as me and hundreds of thousands of others who set out on a Saturday morning to hunt and gather the best food prices for their family.
It was an empty joke from the beginning that had to be sustained to save Labor’s face.
Initial curiosity over the website, which sustained relatively high hits, quickly faded as shoppers realised they couldn’t work out where to get the cheapest grocery items in their area.
Shoppers simply continued to shop using their own initiative and left Grocery Choice to die.
When consumer affairs minister Chris Bowen announced the scheme last year, he said: “Finally, the government is also fulfilling its election commitment made by the then leader of the opposition on (July 11, 2007) to set up a dedicated website that gives consumers a snapshot of local grocery prices.”
It was a promise that, before the focus shifted to the global financial crisis, was an integral part of Labor’s commitment to fight rising prices.
It was then, and remains, an empty and costly gimmick – $13million in taxpayer funds during a global recession – that was implemented only to provide a tick in the promises kept box.
The only saving grace for the government now is that it has decided not to throw more good money down the drain.
The government had to be seen to be doing something, and Grocery Choice was part of that.