Government told to ‘get a bit more spine’ and improve competition to lower prices
Pressure is coming on the Government to improve business competition to push down prices for cash-strapped Kiwis as the cost of living emerges as the top concern in an election year.
Weak competition in some markets is making it easier for businesses to pass on cost increases to customers, Reserve Bank chief economist Paul Conway noted in a recent speech on inflation.
As a small, remote country, some industries in New Zealand are dominated by a few big players.
“When I look at the two building companies, the two supermarket chains, and the four banks that dominate their respective markets, some of that is typical of a country of this size – it’s not that unusual,” says Sam Stubbs, managing director of non-profit Kiwisaver provider Simplicity.
“That means that actually government have a bigger role to play here. It’s not as if you just leave it to market forces to ensure competition.”
That’s right!
The obligation of the Government is to regulate Capitalism so that we the people benefit from the competitive dynamics of competition!
The disgusting right myth is that NZ is an over taxed, over regulated economy when that is total bullshit!
Max Rashbrooke highlighted the horror of NZs under regulated market…
The bad news is that, to investigate 200,000-300,000 terrible rentals, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has employed a frontline inspectorate numbering … 37. Each inspector will have to check somewhere between 5000 and 8000 rentals.
…there is only 37 inspectors of rental properties for 300 000 terrible rentals?
Similar poorly funded regulation is apparent in the 82 labour inspectorates who are supposed to police hundreds of thousands of migrant worker exploitations!
Time and time and time again in New Zealand we see an old boy matrix of vested interests who occupy market dominance and act like a monopoly, duopoly or oligopoly raking in vast wealth while leaving the local small and medium sized operators outside the cosy relationships!
Up and down NZ, small and medium enterprises are unable to compete because of the lack of basic regulation in the market!
We’ve seen it with the Supermarket duopoly, the medicinal cannabis oligopoly, the Gib Board monopoly – each time under regulated and poorly regulated capitalism continues to screw over us the consumers at a time of a cost of living crisis!
Frustration inside the drainage industry has reached boiling point recently with anti competitive practices and crony capitalism that would make your average South American Drug Cartels blush.
We are not an over taxed, over regulated economy!
Our top tax rate is the 39th highest in the world behind all the Scandinavian countries plus Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and South Africa!
Australia’s top tax rate is 47cents!
Our GST rate doesn’t even get us into the top 50 and our corporate tax rate is 40th while Government spending against GDP ranks 56th!
And we are voted easiest to do business by the World Bank!
I’m not looking for socialism here folks, just basic garden variety regulated capitalism!
We can’t drain the swamp because the crocodiles have learnt to shoot machine guns at anyone who attempts it.
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How much time does Grant need to sort this out?
Are they even capable of sorting it out?
Is it in their interest to sort it out?
Do they even have a desire to sort this out?
Do they even know there is a problem? They sure do not act in a way that indicates that they are aware of the problem. They seem stuck with the idea that living in this country is a postal code problem.
That is their primary purpose.
Yet, it appears that they are doing their best to make it more difficult to do business in this country.
There seems to be consensus that the RMA is not creating better outcomes for NZ. Reports following natural disasters seem to support that consensus position.
Yet, Parker is now making it even more difficult if one is to believe the experts.
Well the Commerce Act. gets new teeth this April.
Landlord or “Unpaid-Janitor”? RE: “200,000-300,000 terrible rentals” – When I worked in Western Australia# – on the big resource projects – the Americans called us “Landlords” (now accommodation providers – in woke-speak@ (or greedy landlords)): “Unpaid-Janitors”, house-prices in Texas were going down and the work maintaining a rental house where every problem at the house was your problem etc. (and if you don’t “need” the money)…
– I have a brother in Auckland who is in a state-house (or whatever the woke translation is now) – I asked him yesterday “how many rent increases have you had the last year or so – given home owners have had around 10? – his response 0/zero – so that will go into the woke inflation model – imagine if there was some formula that applied to state housing and they had 5 or 10 rises so they were exposed to the “realities” of the economy like borrowers – and the governments had to adapt their narrative to being “tough” on inflation$.
At the margin there are Janitors that don’t need the money and don’t get paid for work or are slaves – don’t sack them – you will end up contributing to the rental crisis.
#:(i live in NZ and Perth/Thailand (no longer unpaid-janitor))
@: Woke: an articulation of perfection (safe, no risk, no responsibility, no accountability) – for the impotent “where only the impotent are pure” (Goff Whitlam)
$: Infaltion is a. high-street inflation and money supply (printing money in a short space of time) – if you believe the theory and apparently NZ has printed alot of money – haven’t heard of them buying gold to support the paper/fiat money/currency
You might want to consider getting urgent mental health care while you are at it…
landlords are highly paid recepients of tax free passive income…they are the scrounging bennys wayne
Please explain how you have had 10 increases? What are you paying, it’s obviously not rent is it? Is it rates? Because if it’s rates, I assume the next thing you are going to whinge about is your property increasing in value.
Having never had an increase in rent in the 11 years I have been at the current address I can only come to the conclusion that ” home owners” offering up multiple rent increases is akin to rental rape.
If you can’t afford the 10 increases as a home owner, don’t take it out on the tenant otherwise you’ll become a “scum landlord”!
Bert the tenant you would know.
Yes, the Government could hold gold reserves to stabilise the volatile exchange rate however it doesn’t need to buy the gold it could just charge its mineral royalty in gold. The Martha gold mine in Waihi produces $40-$100 million of gold per annum after production costs but is only charged $1 million in royalties. Aussie miner, Oceania, justifies this low rate because apparently, the company pays the PAYE tax, not the workers. https://www.waihigold.co.nz/community/royalties-and-tax/
Martyn – A lot of pain was caused by the Reserve Bank decisions over the last 12 months…
Are you talking about the pain of interest rates returning to some sort of norm. Nathan you need to take a look at NZ interest rates over the last fifty years. We are not Europe.
ds – correct
A CGT would be a good start. Will never happen. Not with wretched LINO.
Exactly Jay11. With Ardern gone the door is open. Trouble is NAT ACT will have a field day with such an idea. Odd in a way because I know a number of folks who I would consider right more than left think we should have a CGT ( an actual one not the bullshit we have had until now).
Yeah sure. Let’s have another election. That’ll fix it?
Currently, what’s happening in France is a good idea?
I can’t remember. Can someone remind me. What does a low turnout mean again?
Who wins?
What would that mean?
Capitalism has totally failed the majority of the population. The huge profits being made by banks, supermarkets and the like are a kick in the teeth for the average person. The system is rotten and focused on keeping the elite rolling in the dosh and the poor fighting each other over their preferred pro-nouns.
But whats the solution?
And what will it take for people to get really angry about how they are struggling to get by day by day whilst the elite are living it up with more money than they could ever spend in several life times.
ram raid your local paknsave
Don’t worry XXX, Ram raiding the big Supermarkets is due once the huge Inflation & collapse of USD & Banks happens!
Time and time and time again in New Zealand we see an old boy matrix of vested interests who occupy market dominance and act like a monopoly, duopoly or oligopoly raking in vast wealth while leaving the local small and medium sized operators outside the cosy relationships!
Up and down NZ, small and medium enterprises are unable to compete because of the lack of basic regulation in the market!
That’s something that has occurred to me. The government opened up all our barriers that enabled our economy to run reasonably well. It then enabled undercutting of an operative economy for us, to benefit others from overseas. We lost our jobs and were encouraged then to look to ourselves in small ways, micro businesses, but then not enabled in them after all the bad karma they have brought on us. It is despicable behaviour from the self-satisfied merchants of glib. There is still time to act positively if they have a will. Where there is a will there is a way so the saying goes, and I believe it. So pull up your socks you prating sh..tes in government, earn your very satisfactory salaries and utilise your power still available, and make your administrative upstarts your lackeys instead of the other way round. Act is a word not just an acronym for nymph flies.
There are 500,000 private rental properties. I don’t believe anything like 60% of them are terrible rentals. It would imply, for instance, that every single private rental in South Auckland, is a terrible rental. Hardly likely.
Realistically the number of terrible rentals will be 10%, maybe as high 20%, say a maximum of 100,000.
It is not the top tax rate that is the key measure, rather the total tax take. New Zealand is notable for having relatively few deductions, and for GST, very few exemptions.
The much better measure is the total tax take as a percentage of the economy. New Zealand is pretty close to the middle of the OECD. Yes, we could go up to Scandinavian levels of the size of government being substantially more than 40%. I would suggest that New Zealanders would not want to make the compromises to their personal lives necessary to become like Scandinavians.
I appreciate the Greens are probably keen on that, but they are between 5 and 10% of the population. If there is Labour Green government they won’t determine the style of the government and more than ACT will determine the nature of a National ACT government.
If you looking for a high percentage of terrible rentals, start with NZ greatest slum lord…Kainga Ora!
Good grief – every time I hear a whinge about the top tax rate without the context of what income level it kicks in the whinger loses a lot of credibility…
We’re overtaxed AND suffer from idiot govt that overspends. As for regulation – the potential regulators are so inept that the far smarter businesses will just get road it.
It is naive to think that govt or govt bureaucrats have anything like the competence necessary to guide, regulate or enforce.
NZ is not highly taxed can we put that myth to bed right now..it’s a US libertarian talking point that doesn’t translate to NZ, one vote
But neither is New Zeakand lowly taxed as per the US. We sit in the middle of the OECD, with tax being over 30% of GDP and government spending being over 35% of GDP., the gap being the deficit. The Scandinavians are over 40%, but I don’t believe most New Zealanders would be keen on that level of tax.
factor in local, state and health insurance costs and the US is way more highly taxed than NZ…wayne
Local and State taxes would be no larger than local authority rates and taxes in New Zealand.
Health insurance, well that is another and very complex story. It entirely depends on your employment situation, at least for work age people. Most employers include health insurance as part of their remuneration package. Veterans, a large percentage of the US population, are well covered. As are most older people through Medicare. Those who miss out are beneficiaries and casual workers. They have a bare minimum coverage.
Overall the tax burden in the US is well below the OECD average. In addition the US spends about 15% of the federal budget on defence (compared to 4% in NZ).
This is the reason why there is the saying in the US “Private affluence amidst public squalor”.
the fact is wayne that the US being low tax is a myth..by some calculations the ordinary yank pays a greater percentage in tax than most of those evil commie scandis…who actually get something for their money
and we won’t go into co-pays, excessesses and other get outs by health insurers in the states.
Government bureaucrats don’t have the competence to guide, regulate or enforce? So what are you suggesting? That only business leaders know how our tax dollars should be spent? Or perhaps we should do away with tax? Or perhaps that only a greedy selfish delusional fool like yourself knows how much and what to spend on this nations society?
Good grief everytime I hear one of you ultra right wing libertarians whinge about tax, I can envision this nation becoming a dystopian feudal kleptocracy run by oligarchs and corporations.
We urgently need Labour to regulate Capitalism – like urgently
Of course we do.
If Labour Party MPs can’t do it for us, their working class constituency, then they should at least do it for themselves, because if they don’t, they will be voted out of government to be replaced with an even more market driven party which will punish Labour’s working class constituency even more. The Labour Party MPs may think that sitting on the sidelines in opposition, for one or two terms, watching while National and ACt savage working familes and beneficiaries for one or two terms may not be so bad.
If the Labour MPs think that this will drive their constituency back to them, they are taking an awful gamble. As both Labour and National keep making things worse for working people, the siren song of the far right is becoming louder and more strident. A desperate people will try anything.
All politics is pressure.
To drown out the siren call of the Far Right. The voices of the parliamentary and activist Left must in turn become louder and more strident in making their alternative solutions to the market economy. Te Party Maori and the Greens must take every opportunity to raise angry voices to denounce the Labour governments market driven trajectory, and increase the pressure for their left alternatives be taken up by the Labour government.
Pat, shouldn’t you check whether or not big pharma approves of this message before running your mouth?
Oh right. One of the worst in the OECD for funding new medicines, but somehow “big Pharma” is in control. I suggest big (dairy) Farmer might be more a contender. Have a nice refreshing glass of colorectal cancer on a hot day. Raise a glass to milk powder and drink it down.
Shouldn’t you check Coca Cola are doing their bit for obesity or Cadbury ‘s or maybe Steinlager are doing their bit for alcoholism or Sky City for gambling addiction before running off your mouth Off White?
Labour has done very little for the poor people of New Zealand and will continue to do little.
And National has done more to create poor people in NZ and will continue to do so.
Simply not true,poor people are more poor after 6 years of a Labour Government.
Government used to regulate capitalism, but now capitalism holds government by the short n curlies, hence the forever growing economic inequality and near endless wars, just to name a couple of big money actions. The political divide is immaterial once you understand the context of today’s captured political world.
All politics is pressure.
Under the Hipkins administration, when it comes to climate change, business will be regulating themselves.
“Companies are in a great position to drive and support climate action, business leaders say.”
Olivia Wannan, Stuff climate reporter, Apr 06 2023
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/131678615/give-us-certainty-sustainable-business-leaders-plead-after-climate-assessment
The previous Prime Minister stated that climate change was her generation’s nuclear free moment. We all know that government had to pass legislation to ban nuclear vessels visiting our ports.
Under pressure from the Far Right and business, the Hipkins administration have “jettisoned” government efforts to regulate against climate change, and apparently are now leaving it up to business to regulate themselves.
“….with climate policies currently being jettisoned under the Hipkins-led Government, climate-concerned businesses may need to step up their efforts, they have warned.”
Olivia Wannan, Stuff climate reporter, Apr 06 2023
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/131678615/give-us-certainty-sustainable-business-leaders-plead-after-climate-assessment
We all know how this works out. in an unregulated competitive free market the most profitable companies drive the less profitable companies to the wall. In an unregulated free market, the most profitable companies able to undercut their rivals are the ones with the lowest wage bill and the cheapest (most polluting) methods of production. These are the companies that will drive their more sustainable rivals from the market.
Fuck the climate!
“It seems as if the only businesses speaking out about political change are in favour of not adapting,”
Kath Dewar, of sustainability-focused marketing firm GoodSense
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/131678615/give-us-certainty-sustainable-business-leaders-plead-after-climate-assessment
“Pressure” gets the ball rolling, the actions or policy that follows determines whom is exerting this so-called pressure. Thus, whom has benefited the most from government actions over whatever period of time you wish to examine, for me, I’ll go back to the 1980’s until now, 2023, gives us an idea about whom government primarily serves.
For starters, neoliberal economic policy is still in place. Who does that serve, the rising economic inequality that has resulted from this policy shows that this does not serve the majority of the people, especially relative to how much it serves big business.
Unions, how strong are they now compared to 1980 or even further if you wish to go further back. Union power, aka people power, not a patch on what it once was.
Public services – infrastructure. One can make a case that these areas did indeed need a major overhaul, back in the day. But how well are they serving the people now. How well!
Taxes. Who is paying more taxes now compared to the 80’s. Big business or the people?
War. What do we the people prefer, peace or war? Why is this not even a topic of conversation in this day and age? War – never serves we, the people!
And so I could go on. It is clear that government actions speak to whom exerts the most “pressure” on them. We, the people, need to counter-balance this (big money) pressure and we need to do it now!
There’s a power imbalance in the political world and if we don’t get this soon, then its back to serf city for all of us.
BTW, all Stuff articles should start with this disclaimer….this is what government wishes us to say today….
Credibility seriously undermined by language used.
spot on AO
You mean how they regulated working people out of work? How they regulated segregation? How they regulated informed consent? How they regulated bodily autonomy? How they regulated the largest transfer of wealth?
Regulate that’s all we know, innovate outside our capability.
REGULATE in NZ ‘YER AVIN A LARFF’
There is a very good opinion piece in the NZ Herald today by Paul Glass.
The guts of it is Labours borrowing.
As a country we now owe twice as much as we did when Winston anointed Jacinda, and we have little to show for it. The other main theme to the piece is the countries debt ratio, and the creative accounting adopted by Grant to effectively change the debt to GDP ratio.
But put all the politic’s aside, the biggie by far in my view, is our countries income. Derived mostly by taxes is:
Individuals 35%
GST 22%
Corporate tax 17%
I don’t image it’s changed much either way under any govt in the last 20 years.
17 FUCKEN % from business…
Something drastic needs to be done. And it needs to start right now with Nash being hung by his testes, and made an example of. We need to see exactly what these filthy pricks are up too.
We need to send all the lobbyists off to get real jobs, and put a total stop to all practices where businesses are able to influence pollies.
I want to know before the election, how much money Labour has received directly or indirectly, through any proxies of the two big supermarket chains, their PR firm’s or anything making donations to the govt with any kind of association to them.
Same for the building supply merchants, to start with just a couple of industries.
As an example of why I’m so cynical; why is it that when the whole gib crisis could have been averted, and I t wasn’t because the govt would not allow them to run under an emergency protocol, the Fletchers CEO, never once pointed the finger at the govt? He never once explained it, he meekly took it on the chin.
Fletchers built a portacom village on site. They had a team willing to work, remain locked on site in isolation, but keep the plant going, the govt would not allow it! Didn’t deem it a critical business.
If they had, Fletchers would not have run out. Which would have meant no panic buying, no issue. Or at minimal in comparison. But the cluster it’s created is simply beyond the scope of most people’s understanding. Some of the building industry’s bankruptcies which are just starting now, would have been extremely unlikely to have occurred if we had a more stable supply. I know this seems like an exaggeration, but I can assure you it’s not.
The bribery going on in the building material supply game is treacherous, and without question contributes to a significant cost on the materials we have to buy. In most developed countries the “incentives” we’re allowed to use here are illegal. Yet the govt look the other way, nothing to see here.
We have a known problem. A problem which is fucking the housing industry. Probably the single biggest factor in housing affordability, and yet the govt won’t do anything.
Why?
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.” Edward Bernays – The father of PR
Funny how many of us on the right were complaining about how the govt elected Foodstuffs and Progressive (Countdown) as the only places available for business during Covid would be a ticket for them to print money.
Ironically now the left are screaming murder as supermarket profits go through the roof, well, sorry but we told you so.
I think this is evidence that the govt should simply butt out of business. If they’d allowed competition to continue then the big two would not have been in the position they’re in now. Instead the govt wiped out all traces of a competitive market so two players could gorge themselves.
The profits have continued as either some competitors simply collapsed under the weight of Covid regulations or punters shopping for everything at the supermarkets became habitual.
Thanks, but no thanks.
EXAMPLES please bg
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