Greens MP Stephen Bates has flagged his party will introduce a private members’ bill to create divestiture powers to break up the Coles and Woolworths duopoly.

Bates asked the prime minister: “Will your government stand on the side of Australians and take on the big supermarket corporations? Will you just [give] your weak excuses about the Soviet Union and let the giant supermarkets continue to write roughshod over Australians?”

Albanese responded, with a joke:

I have been waiting to get a question about the Soviet Union and I have one from the Queensland Greens member. Who would have had that on their bingo card?”

He then gave his more serious answer:

We have directed the ACCC to conduct an inquiry into supermarket prices … We have appointed Dr Craig Emerson to lead a review of the food and grocery code, we are partnered with Choice to provide Australian households with the comparative cost of goods, we have increased penalties for anti-competitive conduct, we have banned unfair contract terms.”

Keeping up with the teasing tone of this question time, Albanese went on to make fun of Nationals leader David Littleproud for partnering with the Greens to support their private members’ bill.

[Littleproud] has said that the Coalition were too slow, and on that, we agree with the leader of the Nationals. He has said that the Nationals wanted to move a lot quicker … in terms of a compulsory grocery code, and I say to the leader of the Nationals, breakaway, breakaway, there are opportunities to break from the shackles of the Liberal Party that have been holding you back for all of this time.”