ANDREW CARSWELL: Will Anthony Albanese’s weak promise of a supermarket taskforce really win voters over?

There is nothing quite like a good task force to capture the imagination of the public.

The people just froth over them.

Like, forget economic policy reform to address systemic competition issues. Forget targeted market intervention where markets have clearly failed.

Give the people what they want. They’re gagging for a taskforce.

Here they are, stomping their way around the fruit and veg aisle of Woolies, shaking their fists at the rampant price of asparagus, in utter disbelief that no Government leader has been bold enough to stand on first principles and launch a task force to look at grocery prices.

And not just any taskforce. A taskforce with teeth. You can’t have one without teeth these days, apparently. That’s just a committee. And you can’t leave this type of serious stuff to mere committees or dare we contemplate, an independent review. Too important. You need a real cop on the beat.

And so finally, on the last Sunday of the first month of autumn, someone was bold enough to do just that. To go where no man, woman or child had dared venture. To reach beyond the myriad of reviews, audits, committees, stock takes, and deep dives that had been the hallmark of the current Government, and press the T-button.

It didn’t matter to Anthony Albanese that others — actually, largely him — had tried and failed to bring down grocery prices with a string of review-style measures that, to mere mortals, look like they were gathering dust on the basement shelves of government departments. Quite the opposite, they sit there proudly, as beacons of policy intent. A library of suggestions and good intentions.

Some catchy titles there too. Who could forget the House of Representatives Standing Committee into Promoting Economic Dynamism, Competition and Business Formation? Or the more succinct Food and Grocery Code Review, which rumour has it, almost encouraged Coles to remove one of its “downs” in their “down down, prices are down” jingle.

But anyway, this time, we were told it was different. This was the moment. The biggest punch a Government could deliver.

Time to go to Task Force Town.

And oh how the nation rejoiced.

Because if anything’s going to wrestle grocery prices to the ground, surely it’s a task force, backed by a strongly-worded report. One with a sharp name that means business. One chaired by an agency heavyweight who is allergic to smiling. It’s no laughing matter.

All to strike fear into the hearts — if they’ve still got them — of every major supermarket chief executive in the country. Well, the two of them.

Surely a task force will force their hand. Because a task force won’t stand for pink lady apples edging above six bucks a kilo. It will take action. It will stare down rising raisin bread and sky high shallots.

What a way to start a campaign, aye? The highly underrated promise of potential action somewhere down the track. Maybe.

It’s no wonder the Coalition are nervous. It’s hard to compete with a Government that has humbly thrown its hands up in the air and admitted defeat, nobly calling in the experts to beg for ideas.

The task force idea surely came out of focus groups. If there is one thing the public knows, it’s the power of deep deliberation and long-form contemplation. Don’t waste your time splitting up the supermarket giants, forcing more competition, issuing multi-million dollar fines to CEOs or addressing the fundamental cost pressures that are keeping prices high.

That’s what the focus groups would have said.

Just give us a report to read. Longer the better.

What action this supermarket task force will recommend remains to be seen. But be assured, there will be a fulsome executive summary with big words, some pretty charts, and some sharp bullet points.

It’ll be bundled into a tidy booklet for the minister’s shelf. Pride of place. And while action on these task force recommendations are never guaranteed, it’s the thought that counts.

But before people get too excited, there is a catch. To get this long-awaited task force to have a look at grocery prices, Australians will have to vote Labor in the upcoming election.

It’s only an election promise. But surely this vague promise of possible potential help, maybe sometime in the future-ish if you vote for the Government (great slogan btw), is just the tonic for weary shoppers, given the three years of nightmarish prices they’ve been paying. The public should feel seen.

So vote for Labor to get a lengthy report into grocery prices which, if it all works out well — it’s a task force after all — might actually bring down the price of your margarine in a year. If they work quickly.

The public has waited so patiently for relief at the check out while the Government rightly focused on the really urgent stuff — like a Voice referendum, and those vital summits in Cambodia and Lithuania.

It can’t be too much longer now. Especially with a task force getting their clipboards ready. The recommendations should land in time for Christmas shopping.

Every little bit helps.