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Speaker 1: So if you're looking for cogent arguments, then there was

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Speaker 1: no shortage of them from the banks. This week in

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Speaker 1: front of the Parliamentary Committee looking into banking. Now they're

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Speaker 1: doing this because the governments decided banks need some kind

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Speaker 1: of reform. There is not enough competition. Apparently, what they

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Speaker 1: plan to do about it, we don't know, but it's

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Speaker 1: the same argument around Telco's petrol Supermarket's airlines. Of particular

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Speaker 1: concern to the government is the way the farmers are

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Speaker 1: being treated now there is dispute within the banking community Kiwibank,

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Speaker 1: Heartland svstbs. Also, it's not fair, the regulations troublesome, the

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Speaker 1: playing field is not flat. The bigger players say things

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Speaker 1: are fine. Of course they would say that, wouldn't they,

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Speaker 1: But between them, and if you want to add the

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Speaker 1: non bank lenders, there seem to me to be no

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Speaker 1: shortage of options for the farmer to deal with banks.

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Speaker 1: The defense is that farm lending is tough work, and

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Speaker 1: as tough work because lending money to farmers carries risk.

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Speaker 1: Returns from rural lending isn't as high as city lending.

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Speaker 1: Their complaint about farmers having higher rates is because a

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Speaker 1: lot of farms operate on flexible rates, not fixed rates.

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Speaker 1: All the banks talked to their market share. No one

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Speaker 1: banked dominates. A number of banks have grown their books.

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Speaker 1: None of this is to defend the banks at the

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Speaker 1: expense of the farmer. It is just to say there

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Speaker 1: doesn't appear to be one side overtly more right than

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Speaker 1: the other. The A and Z boss this week more

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Speaker 1: broadly defended her bank's profits. She was on a hiding

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Speaker 1: to nothing. Of course, she too has cogent arguments, made sense.

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Speaker 1: Put up a good explanation as to how banks work

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Speaker 1: and what sort of return they need. It will make

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Speaker 1: no difference, which is the problem. It's the big problem

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Speaker 1: where you are in this case the government have with

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Speaker 1: big business. There must be a lack of competition. Profits,

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Speaker 1: the argument goes, are too high, without of course, anyone

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Speaker 1: to finding what exactly is an acceptable profit. So we

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Speaker 1: will need rules and threats and the Commerce Commission. But

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Speaker 1: I'll tell you this for nothing. None of it's going

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Speaker 1: to change because my very broad conclusion from all of

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Speaker 1: these industries is we have an imperfect market based partially

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Speaker 1: but in no small part, on the fact where a

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Speaker 1: tiny isolated country at the bottom of the world with

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Speaker 1: five million people, we think we should do or get

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Speaker 1: better than we do, and by being hoodwinked into that

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Speaker 1: sort of thinking someone must be a robber baron, they aren't,

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Speaker 1: but it makes us feel better. For more from the

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Speaker 1: Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks that'd be

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Speaker 1: from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio