Young Jonathan: Commerce (Supermarket Adjudicator and Code of Conduct) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeYoung Jonathan: Commerce (Supermarket Adjudicator and Code of Conduct) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 02 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8539. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth): On 12 February 2014 Shane Jones railed against Progressive Enterprises here in this House. Just today it gave $30000 to the Taranaki District Health Board children’s ward. I said that because it has been severely criticised. This is a grocery chain that over the last 10 years has given $10 million to hospitals. The reason why it does that is because it is profitable and the reason why it is able to not only supply consumers with goods but also supply income to suppliers is because it is a profitable organisation.I think that when it comes to this bill it is trying to duplicate in a minute way in a granular way the responsibilities and activities of the Commerce Commission. We know because of what happened on 12 February last year that a letter was received by the Commerce Commission. The commission felt that it was a serious enough allegation to go into an investigation which when it came to report to the Commerce Committee—which I was chairing at that particular point in time—members like Clayton Cosgrove certainly put the fire to its feet to try to find out exactly what it was investigating or what sorts of outcomes it had come to. The Commerce Commission has printed a report that is available to the public and it has said that the practices that it found were not unlawful.When it comes to for example coercion coercion is actually what happens in business. I go and buy something and it is called pressure it is called negotiation. Those gentlemen across on the other side there may bring out their issues and quote their things but when it came to the Commerce Commission’s report what it said when it looked at this particular issue was: “Progressive assertively communicated its expectations for improved performance and margin to two suppliers. Progressive advised that it may have to consider how it sourced ranged displayed and promoted the suppliers’ products if the suppliers failed to meet Progressive’s expectations. The two suppliers concerned were large multinational companies.”This is the business of buying and selling and supplying and creating an opportunity—an outlet—for those products and it happens. It happens. In fact there were comments made around what the Commerce Commission looked at that I want to just read out to you because I find it very very interesting indeed. It said: “The courts have recognised that in everyday non-legal terms anyone might feel ‘coerced’ if while under pressure they agree to [do] something they would prefer not to do. However the courts have said that something more than persuasion is required to breach section 23 and not every form of pressure amounts to ‘coercion’ in law.”So all of these issues are about where the fine line is. We essentially disagree with this bill because we believe that the courts of this country and the Commerce Commission have everything they need in terms of legal ability to work through these issues if there are genuine and serious complaints. It is very interesting to know that food prices decreased half a percent in the year to October 2015. It is interesting also to know for example that Countdown added 7000 new products to its stores in 2013 which is equal to 23 percent of total products.There is huge competition to get your product on their shelves because many many hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders go there to buy and they need to have that expectation that a product that is promised to be a great seller is going to achieve their goals. It is their business to be in a sense the infrastructure for the ability for consumers to come and purchase and they have people who compete to get products on their shelves. All of this is how this grocery business works.What the member in charge of the bill is wanting to do is to create an adjudicator but I do not think it is going to work in the way she wants it to work. But we do have the Commerce Commission and we have the courts of this nation which I think work very effectively in this particular area. We do not support this bill.