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Speaker 1: Labour's on the attack this morning over groceries. Consents to

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Speaker 1: build new supermarkets are going in the express lane. Thank you,

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Speaker 1: Nichola Willis. This is from years to months predatory pricing

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Speaker 1: laws will They're getting a beef up and Willis is

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Speaker 1: keeping a sledge hammer in her back pocket. A threat

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Speaker 1: to break up the duopoly still a live option, Adding

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Speaker 1: to Williams's, Labour's Commerce consumer affairs spokesperson with me this morning, good.

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Speaker 2: Morning, good morning, Thank for having Matt.

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Speaker 1: Great to have you. So you guys fired off for

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Speaker 1: press release yesterday saying Nichola Willis has been dithering for

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Speaker 1: two years, didn't you guys have six?

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Speaker 2: No, it has taken her a long time to actually

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Speaker 2: action any of the findings of the Commerce Commission study.

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Speaker 2: And let's take a look at what they recommended there.

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Speaker 2: They found how entrenched the problems with will wear some

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Speaker 2: food stuffs controlling around ninety percent in the market and

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Speaker 2: pulling more than a million dollars a day and excess

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Speaker 2: profits every year between twenty fifteen and twenty nineteen. Now

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Speaker 2: is not the time to land on regular tree solutions

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Speaker 2: which actually benefit the supermarket diopoly and won't increase real competition.

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Speaker 2: We needed the action to make sure that grocery prices

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Speaker 2: are coming down for New Zealanders who were promised that

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Speaker 2: by the National Party at the election.

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Speaker 1: All right, fair, so let's just be clear about what

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Speaker 1: exactly your support and you don't the consents. Are you

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Speaker 1: on board with what she's saying?

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Speaker 2: The face try accesstem makes sense and the containing rules

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Speaker 2: changing in this circumstance is going to be a good thing.

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Speaker 1: Predatory pricing beefing up. You're on board with that.

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Speaker 2: We need to see the detail of that. You could

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Speaker 2: do this regulatory reform in a way which actually benefited

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Speaker 2: the supermarket duopoly. I mean they've picked the one option

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Speaker 2: where it will be illegal for dropping prices, so consumers

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Speaker 2: aren't going to see lower prices out of that one.

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Speaker 1: You have said, this is tinkering, it's weak. What are

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Speaker 1: you saying exactly, you would break up the duopoly divestment.

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Speaker 2: We're saying that of the regulatory options which are available

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Speaker 2: in Likilwillis and over in the labor patty, we have

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Speaker 2: been working on a suite of those, this is the

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Speaker 2: one that she has chosen which will lead to more

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Speaker 2: profitable stores for the existing supermarket jopoly. I don't know

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Speaker 2: how they ended up on at least competition in the

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Speaker 2: market and more profitable stores. But those are the choices

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Speaker 2: that they have made with the suite of options that

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Speaker 2: were made available to them.

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Speaker 1: But you're not telling us what you would do differently,

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Speaker 1: What would you break up? Would you go for divestment?

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Speaker 1: Is that what Labor is seriously looking at.

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Speaker 2: Labor was investigating its divestment options under the Commerce Commissions

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Speaker 2: Study when we launched it into the grocery sector. That's

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Speaker 2: no secret. We thought about the change that it would

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Speaker 2: make in our money.

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Speaker 1: But isn't this a problem You've spent six years thinking

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Speaker 1: you did nothing?

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Speaker 2: Okay, we launched a common study.

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Speaker 1: Into the safety of thinking.

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Speaker 2: We unearthed a very cozy market there, made serious reform

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Speaker 2: under the Grocery Commissioner and brought in a grocery code

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Speaker 2: which is resulting in prosecutions. Now. Prices have come down,

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Speaker 2: particularly around the unfair pricing techniques that are going on

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Speaker 2: in store, things like fake specials, because of that work.

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Speaker 1: All right, Adian, I appreciate your time this morning. Thanks

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Speaker 1: for being on the program. Adian and Williams's Labors spokesperson

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Speaker 1: for Commerce and Consumer affears.

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