The Green Party has announced a new Member's Bill, the Commerce (Excessive Pricing in Retail Grocery Industry) Amendment Bill, that would ban price gouging by the supermarket duopoly.
"New Zealanders pay too much for their groceries, while supermarkets are raking in excess profits of a million dollars a day. So, the Greens are introducing a law to make it illegal to charge unreasonable prices for groceries," says Green Party Co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick.
"While Luxon’s Government has talked tough, prices at the check-out have continued to rise."
"Parliament can now actually do something meaningful in its final few weeks before the election by supporting this common-sense Bill, to reduce New Zealanders’ bills. At the end of the day, surely, that’s why we’re all there in the first place."
The Bill is part of the Green Party's affordable kai election policy, which will be announced in full next month. The Bill will be placed in the members' ballot by Green Party MP Ricardo Menéndez March.
"The Bill would prohibit supermarkets from charging prices that are excessive when compared to the cost of supplying the groceries, plus a reasonable margin," says Green Party consumer affairs spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March.
"It would be for the courts to decide whether a supermarket has breached the ban, on application from the Commerce Commission."
"Supermarkets would also be required to keep records of their pricing and provide them to the Commerce Commission on request."
"Breaches would carry penalties of up to $10 million, three times the value of the commercial gain, or 10 per cent of turnover."
"This is consistent with Australia’s approach, which brought in the same ban on 1 July this year with the same penalties we are proposing here, following its own reviews into supermarket market dominance."
"New Zealanders want the same change, with a Consumer NZ survey finding 86 per cent support this protection here."
Swarbrick says the protection is not new to this country.
"Until the deregulation of the 1980s, the Commerce Act 1975 made it illegal for anyone to sell goods at a price that was unreasonably high. That protection was stripped out of our law and has never been replaced. New Zealanders are left paying the price."
"We’re calling on the Prime Minister and Government parties, which are planning to plunge the House into extended hours to tick off their pet projects before the election, to instead use our Parliament’s time to do something practical to lower New Zealanders’ cost of living: support this Bill," says Swarbrick.
