Another example of our under regulated economy and why we should have a kiwi subsidy on NZ produce
In a recent column, 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!
Now we have this outrageous situation where the private sector who have managed to avoid regulation (faint as that is) and have promised a resilient system instead of being forced to invest in properly regulated oversight of vital infrastructure aren’t even telling us how bad their private system really is…
Officials refuse to reveal New Zealand’s fuel security status
Officials refuse to release briefings about how much fuel New Zealand has or should keep on shore.
In April New Zealand became totally reliant on tanker-imported fuel, after the Marsden Point Refinery ended processing.
It came amid a widespread international focus on resource security, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine and shutdowns of European gas pipes disrupted international supplies and prices of food and fuel. And as shipping and logistics routes suffered ongoing bottlenecks triggered by the pandemic.
But despite an RNZ Official Information Request, officials refused to release ministerial briefings about how much fuel New Zealand had or should keep on shore.
…the only reason they are refusing point blank to tell us where we are on petrol supply is because if they did, the little they have in reserve would cause panic buying and they are trying to avoid panic buying.
What they are saying is that their private resilience was bullshit after all.
We need far more properly funded regulation and control over essential infrastructure.
If we had more properly funded regulation, we could avoid this outrage…
No whey – cheese price gulf revealed: $4 in the UK, $23 in NZ
A 250g wheel goes for $22.99 at New World as of Saturday afternoon, or $91.96/kg. British grocery giant Tesco is offering the same 250g portion for just £2.15, equivalent to $4.06, or $16.22/kg.
…why on earth are you and me as Kiwis paying through the nose prices for product grown in our own country???
We need a kiwi subsidy on all local produce to recognize that producers have already used water and created local climate changing gases to create their product and as such consumers have already paid a price just to get the product to their table!
Why are we forced to pay the international rates on food so that the monopoly and duopoly industries profit from us?
We should feed the 5million here first before boasting about feeding 40million world wide!
Calls to ‘feed the 5 million first’ before exporting NZ food
People are going hungry even though New Zealand produces enough food to feed 40 million – and it’s spurring calls for the country to “feed the five million first”.
Almost 40 percent of New Zealand households experience food insecurity, while 19 percent of children live in households that experience food insecurity.
Poverty researcher Dr Rebekah Graham said while working on her thesis on food insecurity, she interviewed a woman who walked for 90 minutes each day to get a free community meal.
Why are we paying international prices for the kai that is grown here in our land on top of an environmental price we already pay?
We need big ideas because we face geopolitical shock waves that will force us to change.
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We also need to fix the loophole in the Council bylaws allowing foreign countries to take our water for buggar all.
Trevor Mallard and other long-running productions in Parliament (‘The Housetrap’!) have been going along with this sort of stuff for yonks. People like that must have trouble sleeping at night, or be truly twisted. They have presided over the regression of government for decades if they haven’t stepped down as soon as they can.
I’m looking at how people came to be caught up in Hitler’s and others machinations. The latest book, quite a tome, seems to find that ordinary people allowed themselves to step away from their previous morality.
Yep and I think this is fundamentally where we are at. When we all had a shared narrative – an agreed roughly Christian morality and an ingrained upbringing of being polite, working hard and caring for family and community. The world was easy.
We elected more and more corrupt leaders and said it was ok and turned a blind eye. Capitalism and greed is good, global capitalism turned into obscenities of wealth, politics became farcical and media were captured.
Now climate change is going to finish us off. Plant a garden.
Well a subsidy seems an expensive option. Better price regulation.
If Tescoes is paying the world price and NZ milk farmers payout is the world price then either the Fontera brands business or the supermarket duopoly or both are extracting super profit. Why give them a subsidy. It would be the same fiascoe as the landlord’s accomodation benefit.
As I understand it New Zealand has 90 days of fuel reserves, of which 30 days are onshore and the other 60 days are offshore or on the water.
I’m sure someone will correct me. . .
But the government told me we can rely on the reserves of other countries!
(Don’t look at the inconvenient truth that Biden has already drawn down more than TWO THIRDS of theirs to try and get through the midterm elections)
Where to start?
Renters:
I know a bunch of students who are renting a place in Mount Wellington for $100 less per week on the understanding that the place doesn’t comply with the insulation or heating regulations. It’s a deal they were only too keen to strike.
A simple statement of fact: Every new regulation that Labour has imposed on the rental market has reduced supply. Economics 101 my dears!
Fuel storage:
We know we have insufficient onshore fuel storage. More importantly the storage we have is in the wrong place. That was the hard lesson learned after the pipeline failure a couple of years ago. There is a plan afoot to build a tank farm in Auckland, I think near the airport, but knowing NZ, it will take a decade to receive resource consent, right?
Also with Zero Carbon 2050 it would be a bad look to be investing in petroleum products. LOL
Cheese:
Having just returned from the UK, I can report that food is definitely cheaper in the UK, including NZ produced cheese. From recollection, the price that Fonterra charges locally is based on some kind of bogus ‘export parity price’ list that hasn’t actually been applicable in reality for decades, but is a useful tool for screwing local customers. The major UK supermarkets will be buying product discounted by maybe 50% or more because of their purchasing power and some of this will be passed on to their customers. Supermarkets are highly competitive in the UK with established players having to compete with newcomers like Lidl and Aldi.
Or Andrew thanks to the regulations those students are benefiting to the tune of 100 bucks a week! Doesn’t change the fact that the landlord sounds like an arsehole. It’s hard to regulate against people being arseholes. The same people that delude themselves ( and no it’s not all landlords) by saying I am providing a much needed service while ignoring the fact that them buying six or so properties is part of the problem for first home buyers.
You’re not good with numbers, are you?
They’re getting a deal that takes their rents back to what it used to be before Labour started punishing landlords.
Very true Martyn.
And if anyone is silly enough to believe the BusinessNZ PR that New Zealand is a country without corruption, well, you can consider having these overworked, underpaid (if you’re overworked you’re underpaid, regardless of the salary) folks working in environments where they can very plausibly ‘miss’ or ‘make mistakes’ for individual rental homes or businesses and never have to worry about having their work cross-checked a best effort to change that.
Italian intellectual Antonio Gramsci, drawing upon marxist theory, came up with “hegemony” to help explain how ruling classes maintain their power when working class people are suffering.
“Hegemony is a set of ideas by means of which dominant groups strive to secure the consent of subordinate groups to their leadership. It occurs when dominant classes in society maintain their dominance persuading the other classes of society to accept their moral, political and cultural values. This means that the majority in a population give consent to policies and ideologies implemented by those in power. One must not assume that this consent is always willing. Those in power may combine physical force or coercion with intellectual, moral and cultural persuasion. The dominant ideology is thus accepted, practiced and spread. Hegemony emerges out of social and class struggles and serves to shape and influence people.”
So, one of the main reasons Rogernomics survives still is the “head job” it did on many New Zealanders, including obviously the current Labour Caucus minus one or two individuals perhaps. When bureaucracies like the NZ State Sector and Reserve Bank have immense powers, individuals come to feel powerless. An ideological fight is above all what is needed to make progress in this country for the majority.
Well Said Martin…
As usual all the neoliberal free market evangelist spin has proved to be justy that, lying propaganda designed to make the rich richer, that utterly failed in the long run and has to be bailed out by the taxpayer anyway…
Socialism for the wealthy, accomodation supplements for landlords.
Privatise profits socialise costs. More wealth transfers to the already wealthy.
Finally put a face to q. Too long anon.
So Andrew thats a YES from you for cheese price regulation?
Or should the 2 supermarkets be nationalised to become a monopsony buyer v. the monopoly cheese seller.
Cheese Comparison is Absolute Rubbish.
I have just been into New Worlds online cheese and nowhere is there a price to uphold your comparison. Here are a couple of everyday cheese prices
https://www.newworld.co.nz/shop/product/5007378_ea_000nw?name=edam-cheese
https://www.newworld.co.nz/shop/product/5013472_ea_000nw?name=smooth-%26-creamy-colby-cheese
If you want to see exorbitant prices there are “boutique” cheese makers who charge like wounded bulls, but l don’t think Tescos would buy these, and anything with artisan, boutique or organic on the label is a license to overcharge.
I do think we are paying too much for our dairy products but not to the extent you quoted.