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Speaker 1: New Zealand's top business leaders are pushing back on changes

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Speaker 1: to credit cards, surcharges, Retail New Zealand and business chambers

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Speaker 1: across the country have penned an open letter to Commerce

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Speaker 1: Minister Scott Simpson. They're urging him to reverse plans that

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Speaker 1: would ban businesses from passing on credit card fees. They

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Speaker 1: say that will lead to unintended consequences for business owners.

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Speaker 1: Leah mccarro, the CEO of North Chamber and one of

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Speaker 1: the signatories, joins me, Now, good morningly, thanks for your time,

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Speaker 1: than Tomadie. What have businesses said to you about the ban?

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Speaker 1: How dire are the consequences that we're looking at here?

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Speaker 2: Well, the band comes into effect next May. So while

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Speaker 2: I haven't heard necessarily a lot specifically from the businesses,

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Speaker 2: but we do know that any cost that's occurred by

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Speaker 2: them is going to actually affect them quite greatly, particular

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Speaker 2: at the moment, so there is concern that these mountain

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Speaker 2: costs are going to have quite an impact on them.

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Speaker 1: Is the issue that small rural businesses are going to

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Speaker 1: be subsidizing US big city paywayver dittion consumers.

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Speaker 2: Well, you know you're right, It does depend on the

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Speaker 2: way that people pay, and obviously it's the credit cards

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Speaker 2: that are incurring the costs. We've got to remember that

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Speaker 2: the credit card companies and the banks are the ones

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Speaker 2: that actually set these fees. And there is already a

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Speaker 2: regulation in place that that businesses can't charge more than

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Speaker 2: they are being charged. But yes, it is going to

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Speaker 2: be those smaller, those companies that take the money. They're

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Speaker 2: not going to incur the cost in the first place,

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Speaker 2: so it won't matter too much to them.

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Speaker 1: Okay, was this an unintended consequence? Do you think? Do

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Speaker 1: you think that the minister knew that this would kind

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Speaker 1: of happen as a result of the law change.

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Speaker 2: Look, I think so. I mean, she has suggested that

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Speaker 2: that businesses treat it, you know, to treat that like

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Speaker 2: any other price increase, in that they just put it

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Speaker 2: on top of the costs. But that means that every

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Speaker 2: consumer is going to be impacted by that, not just

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Speaker 2: so as deciding to use pay label credit cards seems

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Speaker 2: a little unfair to every consumer.

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Speaker 1: Before the ban, Leah, you know, small businesses were charging increasing,

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Speaker 1: charging more and more for payWave. What's going to stop

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Speaker 1: them from doing that again? If the charges are scrapped.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think that's what we're suggesting is rather than

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Speaker 2: scrapping them or or making it that small business is

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Speaker 2: not able to charge it, that they put in a

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Speaker 2: restriction around that. There is already, as I said, a

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Speaker 2: requirement of actually charge no more than that being charged.

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Speaker 2: But surely we can do that and then have some

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Speaker 2: sort of consumer line that actually identifies those businesses that

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Speaker 2: may well be trying to buck the system and make

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Speaker 2: money out of it. That's not the point. The point

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Speaker 2: is that these small businesses are the ones that are

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Speaker 2: now going to be incurring these costs. What are they

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Speaker 2: to do?

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Speaker 1: Leah, On a completely different note, I believe the Northland

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Speaker 1: Monopoly game has just arrived and Dargaville is upset they

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Speaker 1: got the brown spaces.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think that there was some concern. That was

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Speaker 2: the first question I got, asked, who's the brown spaces?

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Speaker 2: And I think we need to think about where could

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Speaker 2: I actually purchase a property when I'm just entering on

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Speaker 2: the ladder, and I reckon Dargable is just the place

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Speaker 2: for people who got the gorgeous who.

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Speaker 1: Got the blue properties?

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Speaker 2: Oh do you know? At the top of mind, I

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Speaker 2: cannot recall, but It is absolutely beautiful and it's lands

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Speaker 2: and fung array this morning. So we're going down to

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Speaker 2: open the container and it's pretty special actually.

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Speaker 1: Oh brilliant, brilliant. Enjoy that. Thank you so much, Lea.

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Speaker 1: Appreciate that that was the Maciro there for the CEO

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Speaker 1: of Mid Chamber and one of those signatories.

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