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Speaker 1: Ryan Bread Many Jeland Initiative have come up with a

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Speaker 1: plan to bring competition to the grocery sector. They've drafted

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Speaker 1: up a bill for the government. Here you go on

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Speaker 1: a platter. They say that consents and rezoning processes need

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Speaker 1: to be streamlined with a pathway opened up for a

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Speaker 1: third retailer. So Chetwin's the Grocery Action Group with us

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Speaker 1: this morning. So good morning, good morning. What do you

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Speaker 1: make of this? No need to bash the heads of

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Speaker 1: these duopolies. You just actually get government out of the way.

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Speaker 2: Look, I think that this would be nice to have,

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Speaker 2: but you have to recognize that this report would have

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Speaker 2: been put out with the financial support of Willworth food

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Speaker 2: Stuff and Fonterra, who are really big supporters probably of

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Speaker 2: the status quo. So what our problem in New Zealand

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Speaker 2: is is not that we don't have enough land. We

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Speaker 2: have enough supermarkets, but what we have is too few operators.

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Speaker 2: We have too few competitors. And what this government has

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Speaker 2: seen is that we can't get a competitor because we're

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Speaker 2: paying the highest price to some of the highest prices

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Speaker 2: in the world because we have a lack of competition.

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Speaker 2: What we need is more competitors. And to get more competitors,

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Speaker 2: they probably have to look at forcing the existing the

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Speaker 2: incumbents to actually divest some of the stores that they have,

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Speaker 2: because we have plenty of super markets, we just don't

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Speaker 2: have enough operators.

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Speaker 1: You said there's enough land. Whenever anyone tries to build anything,

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Speaker 1: there is opposition. There's I mean there's a labor MP

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Speaker 1: in christ Church is trying to stop a supermarket being built.

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Speaker 1: I interviewed the former managing director of Costco. He said

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Speaker 1: the biggest problem was zoning for land and bringing his

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Speaker 1: supermarket here. So there is a problem there isn't there.

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Speaker 2: I think, as I said, I think this would be

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Speaker 2: a nice to have. But all all the land that

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Speaker 2: would have been useful for food and markets has in

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Speaker 2: the past being bought by will Web and food Stuffs,

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Speaker 2: food stuffs to stop others competing, and the Communist Commission

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Speaker 2: has stopped that behavior.

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Speaker 3: They've yeah, so so that land is now you think though,

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Speaker 3: so you think this is this report has actually just

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Speaker 3: been bought by the big dogs.

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Speaker 2: Look, I think it. I think it has. It's to

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Speaker 2: slow down any activity because Nikola Willis has definitely said

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Speaker 2: that she's looking at this and divestment is on the table.

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Speaker 2: They want to stop that happening because that would encourage

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Speaker 2: real competition. And even within this report they talk about,

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Speaker 2: you know, oh, freeing up land for twelve new players,

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Speaker 2: well twelve new are sorry, twelve twelve new stores. But

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Speaker 2: that's not going to cut mustard. I mean, thirty news

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Speaker 2: stores wouldn't cut the mustard. Now we're talking about allowing

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Speaker 2: competition to come into this country at scale fast, so

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Speaker 2: that actually means divestment.

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Speaker 1: So appreciate your Timesponling Seedshipwin Grosser Reaction Group for more

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Speaker 1: from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to News

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Speaker 1: Talks at b from five am weekdays, or follow the

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