"... politicians [are] going to put more pressure on supermarkets, we've heard that for years. Fundamentally the problem is that we've only got two big players in the country."
#LiamDann, Business Editor-at-large, #NZHerald, 2025
https://www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/mediawatch?share=29744fe6-be1b-4bde-94ce-89aee9f80581
Wrong. The fundamental problem is lack of pro-competition regulation and enforcement.
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We need a policy of increasing incomes. For all there many faults the last Labour government had such a policy.
Also wrong. Making number go up in people's bank accounts doesn't help if the supermarkets can just make number go up in their prices to keep pace. The only thing that can prevent that is competition. Or price controls, but Muldoon tried that, it didn't work, and its failure fueled the 1980s/90s deregulation mania that got us where we are.
They also had a policy on addressing the supermarket oligopoly, and got as far as creating the Grocery Commissioner, who is doing great work. He could do more under a government who are willing to take effective action, rather just making vaguely disapproving noises about the lack of competition.
When I was a child there were many independent grocery suppliers and more than 2 supermarket chains. Ironically, deregulation justified by "free market" ideology has delivered exactly the opposite.
I wonder if people like Liam Dann are still drinking the Kool-Aid, or if they're just bought and paid for by the monopolists.
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