Big profits by Coles, Woolworths and Qantas have triggered debate over companies driving up the cost of living.
The two grocery giants this week announced annual profits of more than $1 billion, even after a spike in cost-of-living pressures on households.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said it was important for companies to be accountable for their prices.
"When corporate Australia's costs moderate, we want to see their prices moderate too," Dr Chalmers told the National Press Club on Thursday.
"Individual companies will make their own explanations about profit reports and the like ... our job is to make sure the settings are right, and that's what we're going to spend the next couple of years making sure that they are."
Woolworths chief executive Bradford Banducci said the supermarket chain was working to reduce the cost of products on its shelves, denying the company was price-gouging customers.
"Our customers scrutinise our prices every day. It's one of the most cross-shopped grocery markets in the world," he told ABC Radio.
"We all are under scrutiny, as we should be .... our customers are very challenging and demanding, as they should be.
"That is the true north for us, and I think that sets the high watermark for what we need to focus on."
ACTU assistant secretary Joseph Mitchell said it was legitimate for Australians to ask whether big supermarkets have used the cost-of-living crisis as a smokescreen to push up profit margins, despite their costs decreasing.
Qantas reported on Thursday it made an underlying profit after tax of $2.47 billion for 2022/23, compared with a $1.86 billion loss the previous year.
Revenue grew to $19.8 billion, up from $9.1 billion last year.
The airline's boss Alan Joyce said fares should keep dropping as more international capacity comes online.
He said this should occur by the middle of next year, which was the fastest the airline could get wide-body aircraft back in the air.
ACTU president Michele O’Neil said not only was Qantas increasing costs to the average flyer in a market it broadly controlled, but it was also "hell-bent on driving down terms and conditions for its workers to maximise its profits".
“Qantas customers know all too well the impact of cancelled or delayed flights, lost luggage and regular inconvenience, whilst paying more for their ticket while fuel prices fall," she said.
NAB chief executive Ross McEwan told an Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce event in Melbourne that inflation, while slowing, had hurt Australians "more during the past 18 months than it has for three decades".
"It’s difficult to find an area of spending that hasn’t gone up," he said.
"Groceries, petrol, mortgages, rent, electricity, gas, dining out, travel, transport - you name it, everything we buy as consumers is up in price."
Mr McEwan said customers were cutting back on eating out and car trips.
However, he considered the economy was in "pretty good shape", with unemployment near its lowest level in decades, strong resources exports, and the housing market holding up better than expected.
"There is a lot of discussion as to whether Australia will head into a recession as we do have many headwinds - my view is we won’t," Mr McEwan said.
Qantas executives have been called to appear before a Senate committee inquiry on the cost of living in Melbourne on Monday.
