In the heart of every descendent of historical grievance by those who have benefited, is the unspoken fear that those who have been wronged will one day rise up and seek righteous justice.
This psychological knee jerk reaction is on constant display in New Zealand by the Pākehā majority whenever co-governance is suggested. The guilt of historic grievance becomes overshadowed by the fear of revenge and half of the country feverishly imagine co-governance as the first step towards a Māori uprising!
The Commerce Commissions report into the Supermarket Duopoly has radically suggested the Government step in and take up 125 stores to force a third player to generate competition and bring prices down for consumers.
I think the State has an obligation to regulate markets so that capitalism serves the interests of the people rather than the corporations so I am in favour of the State stepping in to generate the competition.
Food inflation is skyrocketing and anything that helps regulate our $22 billion per year supermarket industry to bring down prices would help renters and first home mortgagees more than any other program this year.
But it could be even more than that.
There are already a number of iwi looking to invest in this duopoly busting Commerce Commission report and a 50-50 partnership between Government and iwi would embody and be an example of the co-governance model in action providing cheaper kai for customers, living wages for staff & better prices for suppliers!
Rather than fearing the unimaginable co-governance, Pākehā could see it working for the common good.
First published on Waatea News.
Not a bad call and far less likelihood of it being sold off to some investment corporation at a bargain to gut.
And who knows, it may see some of the profit go to growers and suppliers instead. Maybe.
Government runs hospitals that rely on Private hospitals to keep on top of operations.
Government runs education which is a underfunded and a political football each year.
Government runs prisons which are poorly run and constantly in the gun for poor outcomes.
Government is in charge of roading . Anyone seen the road deaths higher than ever despite limited movement due to covid
Government and iwi take control of retail grocery shops looks like racist communism and once they have set up a new government department with layers of buracrats the savings would be negligent and National would privatize them again.
Trevor, I believe the higher the population, the more deaths on our roads. Obviously back in the seventies and eighties there were less deaths as our population was less. Some of our holiday destination roads were still loose metal. The higher the population and the higher powered engines we have , the worse the road deaths have become. All governments contribute to this.
“cheaper kai for customers, living wages for staff & better prices for suppliers!”
Cheaper food, higher wages and more to suppliers? Yeah, good luck with that.
The State can’t fix/touch the global supply chain issues befalling us/the world. Meddling in local affairs, such as this…best they can.
Give the Iwi a crack at it. I’d be up for that. Can’t do any worse than greedy thieving duopoly.
I believe that we live in a country small enough so that it would be relatively easy for a government of the day to ban private investors from owning the supermarkets.
Supermarkets would then become SOE’s working on a non-profit or a nearly non-profit basis for two decades or longer. This is a model that would benefit renters and first time mortgage holders, as they will be paying less for their groceries; it will benefit the current owners of the supermarkets, as they will be forced to sell their holdings but for a fair non-taxable profit; and the government would benefit from the arrangement as well, making an annual profit of anywhere between 0.5 to 1.5 percent per annum compared with the current rates of between 2 to 3 percent on average.
The added discretionary income would, for the most part, be saved by the homeowners concerned. The hypothetical government would then be wise to reduce taxes on savings but to make up for it by implementing an alternative measure of taxation, whether it be a Mansion Taxation, Comprehensive Inheritance Taxation, Financial Transactions Taxation.
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