A proposed rise in the price of milk in the ACT left many Canberrans disgruntled on this day in 1968.
Canberra Consumers Incorporated asked the Minister for the Interior, Mr Nixon, to hold a public inquiry into the price of milk, sending him a telegram requesting he wield his powers under the Prices Regulation Ordinance in a bid to prevent the price increase.
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The price increase would apply to delivered milk, raising the fee by 1 cent per delivered bottle. Mrs B. W. Rees of Ainslie, catering for six family members, would see an extra 70 cent cost per fortnight. Rather than pay the extra cost, she chose to inconvenience herself and go to the shop each day to buy her milk.
This unwelcome increase in milk prices was not a simple battle to be fought - the Labor leader in the ACT Advisory Council, Mr G. J. Walsh proposed a seven-point plan, by which "citizens could resist and even defeat the vendor's price rise".
One plan was for consumers to contact their vendors and ask whether they were intending to implement the delivery fee. If told yes, the consumer would then advise the vendor of their refusal to pay such a fee, and let them know that they would make arrangements to change brands of milk.
Mr Walsh and milk buyers in Canberra hoped that the disruptions to the vendors would create an impact serious enough to defeat the proposed milk price increase.
