Opposition parties say the government’s plan to drive down supermarket prices does not go far enough, but have varying solutions of their own.
The government on Wednesday announced a suite of policies designed to make it quicker and cheaper to build supermarkets in New Zealand, so long as they improved competition.
Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis said the new “express lane” approach would assist new and existing players, like Costco, to scale up.
But the Greens’ commerce and consumer affairs spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March said that was only “one part of the puzzle” and the government needed to explore all its options – including breaking up the supermarket duopoly.
“While we support having new players in the market, Nicola Willis is banking on big corporations coming into Aotearoa, and that automatically leading to lower prices,” Menéndez March said.
“What we need is action that tackles the greed we are seeing in the duopoly right now.”
Willis has kept open the option of government intervention in the supermarket industry, but coalition partner ACT would be staunchly opposed to such moves.
Menéndez March also pointed to the Greens’ policy of taxing excess profits as an option, with the funds reinvested into the local community.
The Labour Party said the fast-track regime, while sensible, would not make any “immediate difference” for struggling New Zealanders.
Labour’s finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said the government was “dithering” given similar changes were recommended in Commerce Commission’s market study in 2022.
Edmonds, however, did not offer up any alternative suggestions of her own, beyond saying she would have begun work earlier.
“We had started the groundwork for it,” she said.
Asked whether Labour supported breaking up the duopoly, Edmonds said it would consider ways to “disrupt” that market power but accepted there was a need to tread carefully.
“Labour wants competition in the supermarket sector, and whether that comes from iwi, whether that comes from another competitor, we want to support that as much as we can.”
