Mōrena. The six things to know this morning in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate are:
* Labour has proposed forcing both Foodstuffs and Woolworths to run their wholesale operations independently from their retail stores. That appears to gazump National’s plan to only break up Foodstuffs, although that plan was itself a gazumping of Labour’s initial idea for a vague ban on price gouging.
* The trouble is both Labour and National have been here before, threatening to regulate or breakup the duopoly, but with little real action that reduces prices for consumers and eases the cost of living pain that voters say is their main concern in Election 2026.
* Also, both ideas are already under concerted attack by vested interests, including big political donors, and will have to get through yet more official reviews and overcome intense undisclosed lobbying that is now endemic throughout various levels of Government.
* In my view, it will be tough to unshackle this major part of our economy, along with other captured sectors such as electricity, gas, banking and insurance, without proper reform of our lobbying and political disclosure regimes, as author Max Rashbrooke points out in the interview above on his report with Lisa Marriott about lobbying published last Thursday..
* In election news over the weekend, the Greens proposed the removal of ‘ratchet up’ clauses in commercial lease rent reviews so rents can be lowered, as well as raised. The Greens would also give councils the power to auction leases on shops that have been empty for more than a year.
* Also: NZ First proposed refocusing the health system on prevention through primary health care, rather than prevention, although the new specifics were mostly offering vitamin C & D treatments; and, National proposed ending screen use in early childhood education centres and setting limits in primary schools.
How our captured economy is choking our progress
Here we go again.
Yet another set of apparently seriously proposals to break the duopoly control of one of the economy’s key sectors, but with the very real prospects neither will get past the ‘official review’ stage or work in practice after intense lobbying and interference within (and without) Government by well-ensconced vest ed interests.
Anyone focused on the here and now would see the National and Labour announcements over the last week as the final confirmation that ‘something’ is going to happen. But we’ve been here before, a few times.
Labour, with Chris Hipkins as its Prime Minister, bailed out of a structural separation in groceries when in Government in 2023 after a Commerce Commission market study and another MBIE study. National, with Willis as Finance Minister, has also bailed out of significant competition and structural reform in electricity and banking.
So why are incumbent interests so powerful?
I spoke on Thursday with Max Rashbrooke about the unregulated nature of lobbying in New Zealand and the way vested interests are quietly intertwined with the machinery of Government, both through policy and legislation often being outsourced to the affected industries, and uncontrolled revolving doors for executives and regulators.
The end result is New Zealanders spend more as a share of their income on food than Australia, the United States, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Norway and Singapore. Only France and Japan are higher (See chart of the day below).
The full interview with Max is above.
The backlash gets personal
Owners of Pak n’ Save and New World stores have launched concerted attacks on National’s proposed Foodstuffs breakup plan on social media and the mainstream media, as 1News, The Post-$ & RNZ reported.
Meanwhile, to indicate the forces of transparency against vested interests is on the back, the scoop of the day is from Andrea Vance for The Post-$ from Friday, in which she reports:
“The Government has quietly mapped out a post-election overhaul of the Official Information Act, including tougher refusal rules and charging requesters, after research put the system’s “true cost” at up to $750 million a year.”
Here’s the Ministry of Justice website section on the rewrite and here’s the 47-page briefing paper and cost estimate cited by Justice.
Chart of the Day: Food spending as a share of income
Election 2026: The moment that started the campaign
A first-person account of how a man died in Waikato Hospital’s ED in July after a nine-hour wait electrified a debate about health in Auckland on Thursday night, as detailed in these excellent deep-dive reports from 1News & RNZ. I see this event as the first agenda-setting event of the 2026 Election campaign, which will start in earnest next Thursday when the current Parliament adjourns. (Pictures above and below. Tayla spoke at the event. See quote of the day below.)
Quote of the day: Her dad died in an overloaded ED
“In addition to the hospital being over 100 percent capacity, they were also four doctors down and two nurses down during the afternoon shift.
“Mum received a call from the hospital at one in the morning, saying he had collapsed and they were doing CPR and to get to the hospital as quickly as we could.” Tayla Horsburgh via RNZ.
The Best of the Rest via my Top Six Picks n’ Mixes
Scoops & News Breaking elsewhere this morning
* Nicholas Jones for Stuff: An ambulance boss’s criminal convictions - and a grieving mother’s fight for tougher rules
* Deep-dive by Tim Brown for RNZ: Heartbroken families speak out against safety rule changes
* Marc Daalder for Newsroom Pro-$: Ministers axed clean energy rule from gas loan scheme at last minute
* Andrea Vance for The Post-$: High-profile lawyer hired for mayor’s battle with residents – ratepayers pick up the tab
* Mike White for The Press-$: ‘Nothing more than PR theatre’: The people behind Santana Minerals’ community liaison group
* Andrea Vance for The Sunday Star Times-$: ‘Betrayal’: Government U-turn strips fishing protections won in the wake of Rena
Deep-Dives, Features, Investigations & Commentary
* Mihingarangi Forbes for her substack: Marokopa: They were telling the truth ‘For years, Storm and Jubilee Dawson warned agencies about their missing siblings. No one believed them but a new report into Tom Phillips documents their efforts and the failures of our system.’
* Isaac Davison for Stuff: The Report Card: Did the Government fulfil its economic promises?
* Deep-dive by Laurie Winkless for Forbes: Is The Hydrogen Train Hype Running Out Of Steam?
* Deep-dive by Nina Brown for Stuff: ‘Cigarettes have this aura’: The young Kiwis smoking to quit vaping
* Interview with Chloe Swarbrick by Anna Thomas for RNZ: ‘I was a massive nerd’: A road trip with Chloe Swarbrick Swarbrick says she was a “Lisa Simpson character”. “I’m only just shedding that now.”
* Column for The Post-$: Richard Harman: The panic behind National’s supermarkets announcement
Cartoon of the Day: Dance Cossack, Dance!
Cheers
Bernard
PS: Here’s the full Picks n’ Mixes with a fuller Chart Pack and more cartoons in my Early Bird post published online only for subscribers this morning.
