Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Catherine Beard: BusinessNZ Director of Advocacy on National's plan to split up Foodstuffs to drive competition

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Catherine Beard: BusinessNZ Director of Advocacy on National's plan to split up Foodstuffs to drive competition · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now, the Finance Minister is getting blowback and it's coming hard.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Catherine Bear, Business NZ, with us this morning. Catherine, good morning.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Good morning.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: So you've mentioned the oil and gas ban here all
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: over again. Why is that?
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Look, this is hugely alarming, particularly coming from one of
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: the major political parties. To threaten to take private property
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: and split it up is a very dramatic thing to do.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: And it sends an incredibly concerning signal right through the
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: business community in every sector. And it sends a terrible
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: signal to international investors that, you know, be careful what
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: you do in New Zealand because the government could come
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: along and actually, you know, take your business essentially. I
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: think the other thing to think about here is, you know,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: there's no surety that this would actually reduce costs for consumers.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: In fact, it might increase costs. because you have to
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: remember we've got a very big country with a very
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: small population, a lot of territory to cover, and if
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: you're just duplicating systems, you're actually just adding cost into
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: the system.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Is this Banana Republic stuff, Catherine?
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: It seriously is, you know. We're starting to look a
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: bit like Venezuela because you've got a lot of the
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: political parties falling over themselves to make these sort of
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: announcements and it's not just confined to supermarkets, frankly.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: The Minister has said that the supermarkets have a big
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: and expensive lobby group. Foodstuffs is one of your members.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: You are a lobby group, essentially. Are you out there
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: this morning keeping prices high screwing Kiwi consumers, laughing all
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: the way to the bank.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Look, I think the other thing that they haven't actually proven,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: and the Commerce Commission itself acknowledges this, is we don't
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: even have a definitive study that says a basket of
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: New Zealand supermarket goods are more expensive than anywhere else
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: in the world, because most countries in the OECD, like
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: the majority, do not put a tax on food. New
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Zealand has a 15% tax on all food. So, you know,
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: we would argue, actually, if you take the GST off,
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: we're actually very competitive with a basket of goods anywhere
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: in the world. So, you know, they really haven't, I
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: don't think, proved the case that there's a problem here.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: You know, yes, we've had food inflation, but so has
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: the rest of the world. And the last Comcom report
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: says that our food inflation is pretty much in line
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: with the UK and Australia. So... really they could intervene
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: and do more harm than good.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: What other industries do you think would be nervous this morning,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: having listened to Nicola Willis yesterday?
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Well, any big sector really. So they've already had a
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: crack at the banking industry. We've got New Zealand First
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: threatening to break up the Gentailers. Again, we feel like
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: that could be an own goal. You know, again, you
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: can lose your efficiencies of scale. And, you know, that
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: is a market that everybody has seen deliver. And, you know,
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: the facts are there to prove it. Very competitive electricity
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: prices over the last 20 years. It's a state market.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: And there's a bunch of reasons why investment was a
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: bit slow to come on board, but to really go
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: in and break things up. And, you know, it's, yeah,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: it's destructive, really. And, you know, New Zealand just ends
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: up going sideways. And international investors who want to come
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: here and build new things go, well, we can't trust
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: that economy anymore.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Catherine Baird, Business New Zealand.