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Speaker 1: So was this an announcement of an announcement? I don't know.

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Speaker 1: This is of course, Nichola willis wanting to do something

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Speaker 1: about supermarkets, so she's looking at a third entrance into

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Speaker 1: the grocery sector to break up the duopoly. But there's

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Speaker 1: no third entrant in say it in a cost of fortune.

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Speaker 1: She's also suggested maybe breaking up the groups, and she's

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Speaker 1: also suggested separating retail from wholesale, so she set up

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Speaker 1: a six week process requesting information from the sector and

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Speaker 1: grocery policy expert Ernie Newman joins it, good morning to

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Speaker 1: you again, Ernie, Ryan, I had stickens here. I'm afraid.

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Speaker 2: Oh sorry, I'll beg your pardon.

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Speaker 1: I don't know. Ryan's back in a couple of weeks.

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Speaker 1: Don't you worry about that? Is this whole thing? Words?

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Speaker 1: Or will something happen?

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Speaker 2: Well, I've had to eat my words to be quiet, Horus,

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Speaker 2: because I was a bit skeptical going into the announcement yesterday.

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Speaker 2: But Ellan and Nichola Willison has come through as a

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Speaker 2: minister on a mission, and I've been enormously impressed with

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Speaker 2: her language and her determination and the homework she's done.

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Speaker 2: You know, she's almost taking her political career in something here.

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Speaker 2: So I'm feeling a lot more optimistic than I was

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Speaker 2: twenty four hours ago.

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Speaker 1: But come on, Honestly, if she tries to break up

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Speaker 1: a supermarket chain, if she tries to take the fresh

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Speaker 1: values off and make them in other hands, the supermarkets

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Speaker 1: who have got a lot of thing, they're going to

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Speaker 1: fight this tooth and nail.

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Speaker 2: Of course, they will, just like Telecom dies back in

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Speaker 2: the day. But you know, the Telecom breakup happened largely

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Speaker 2: because there was a lot of public anger about their

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Speaker 2: bullying behavior, and there was political agreement that something needed

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Speaker 2: to be done. But I think we're on the trek

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Speaker 2: here for you know, pretty much political agreement to the

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Speaker 2: main parties at least that this has to be fixed,

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Speaker 2: and has to be fixed thoroughly.

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Speaker 1: Cold. So also, the hunt for a third entrant is

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Speaker 1: that desperate because really it's going to cost so much money.

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Speaker 1: There's no property there. They're going to buy the property,

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Speaker 1: they're going to buy the chain for supply. Is that

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Speaker 1: a reality?

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Speaker 2: Think it is not in not in the present situation,

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Speaker 2: because you know, you've got a you've got a marketplace

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Speaker 2: here that is populated by bullies, and nobody has done

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Speaker 2: anything up until now to really hold them to account.

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Speaker 2: But I think now that we have the determination from

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Speaker 2: no one less than the Finance Minister and her party

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Speaker 2: to deal with this situation. You know, to start up

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Speaker 2: in New Zealand is not that huge. We're a lot

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Speaker 2: of big country and I think if international operators can

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Speaker 2: see a fair deal and an even playing field when

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Speaker 2: they get here, the amount of money involved is not great.

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Speaker 2: It also doesn't have to be international, you know, we

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Speaker 2: we do have the potential for something local.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely Okay, Ernie, I thank you so much for more.

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Speaker 2: From Early Edition with Ryan Bridge.

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Speaker 1: Listen live to News Talks it be from five am weekdays,

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