Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Arena Williams: Labour Party Commerce Person on the Government's plan to fast-track supermarkets

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Arena Williams: Labour Party Commerce Person on the Government's plan to fast-track supermarkets · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Labour's on the attack this morning over groceries. Consents to
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: build new supermarkets are going in the express lane. Thank you,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Nichola Willis. This is from years to months predatory pricing
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: laws will They're getting a beef up and Willis is
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: keeping a sledge hammer in her back pocket. A threat
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: to break up the duopoly still a live option, Adding
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: to Williams's, Labour's Commerce consumer affairs spokesperson with me this morning, good.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Morning, good morning, Thank for having Matt.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Great to have you. So you guys fired off for
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: press release yesterday saying Nichola Willis has been dithering for
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: two years, didn't you guys have six?
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: No, it has taken her a long time to actually
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: action any of the findings of the Commerce Commission study.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: And let's take a look at what they recommended there.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: They found how entrenched the problems with will wear some
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: food stuffs controlling around ninety percent in the market and
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: pulling more than a million dollars a day and excess
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: profits every year between twenty fifteen and twenty nineteen. Now
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: is not the time to land on regular tree solutions
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: which actually benefit the supermarket diopoly and won't increase real competition.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: We needed the action to make sure that grocery prices
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: are coming down for New Zealanders who were promised that
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: by the National Party at the election.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: All right, fair, so let's just be clear about what
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: exactly your support and you don't the consents. Are you
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: on board with what she's saying?
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: The face try accesstem makes sense and the containing rules
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: changing in this circumstance is going to be a good thing.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Predatory pricing beefing up. You're on board with that.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: We need to see the detail of that. You could
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: do this regulatory reform in a way which actually benefited
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: the supermarket duopoly. I mean they've picked the one option
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: where it will be illegal for dropping prices, so consumers
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: aren't going to see lower prices out of that one.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: You have said, this is tinkering, it's weak. What are
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: you saying exactly, you would break up the duopoly divestment.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: We're saying that of the regulatory options which are available
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: in Likilwillis and over in the labor patty, we have
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: been working on a suite of those, this is the
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: one that she has chosen which will lead to more
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: profitable stores for the existing supermarket jopoly. I don't know
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: how they ended up on at least competition in the
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: market and more profitable stores. But those are the choices
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: that they have made with the suite of options that
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: were made available to them.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: But you're not telling us what you would do differently,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: What would you break up? Would you go for divestment?
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Is that what Labor is seriously looking at.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Labor was investigating its divestment options under the Commerce Commissions
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Study when we launched it into the grocery sector. That's
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: no secret. We thought about the change that it would
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: make in our money.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: But isn't this a problem You've spent six years thinking
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: you did nothing?
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: Okay, we launched a common study.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Into the safety of thinking.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: We unearthed a very cozy market there, made serious reform
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: under the Grocery Commissioner and brought in a grocery code
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: which is resulting in prosecutions. Now. Prices have come down,
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: particularly around the unfair pricing techniques that are going on
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: in store, things like fake specials, because of that work.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: All right, Adian, I appreciate your time this morning. Thanks
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: for being on the program. Adian and Williams's Labors spokesperson
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: for Commerce and Consumer affears.
• 3:02
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• 3:05
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• 3:08
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