Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion has condemned "price gouging" at remote community stores after a tin of baby formula was marked up more than three times its original value in the Torres Strait.
A photo of a 900g tin of S-26 Gold Newborn formula selling for $85 at a shop on Thursday Island on Christmas Day has been shared widely on social media.
The product usually retails on the mainland for about $20 and Senator Scullion says it's unacceptable businesses are "ripping off the poorest of the poor" by hiking the price of basic goods in the isolated region.
"In communities where there is only one option, it is just simply not acceptable to have that sort of level of gouging," he said.
Senator Scullion said freight is partly subsidised in outback Northern Territory shops and he vowed to "act within whatever capacity I can" in the far north Queensland area too.
"They just need to be exposed ... named and shamed," he said.
"It should be a signal to stores, you should not wait for the government to hold you to account."
