Uffindell SamSAM UFFINDELL (National—Tauranga): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's a good thing to be able to rise and talk on this bill the Grocery Industry Competition Bill. I've listened to the Minister and the chair of the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee and also our fantastic Andrew Bayly talking on this so far. The sentiment in the House is that this is something we support and I will reiterate that.It is a true statement that people are paying far too much for their groceries at the moment. It is a really significant undertaking for families and they go in there and they are coughing up. I looked at a block of cheese the other day. I was stupid enough to pick up the Tasty from Mainland the 1-kilo block—it's a great cheese; yes it is—but the price of $20 really smacked me and I thought Crikey that is an extremely expensive block of cheese." I rightly put it back and went for the more budget block Colby version. I'm sure there are many families around the country who are doing exactly the same or probably going even further and just leaving the cheese altogether. And it's not just cheese; if we look across all grocery items over the past 12 months they are up over 12 percent. We are in a cost of living crisis—we really are. We look at fresh fruit and vegetables: up 22.5 percent over the past 12 months. That is significantly above the Consumers Price Index (CPI) which is running incredibly hot anyway the hottest it's been for 30 years—since I can remember anyway. Families out there are doing it really tough so it is prudent upon this House that it does take some steps to make it a little bit easier.New Zealand is quite unique in the situation that over 90 percent of our supermarkets come under a duopoly: Foodstuffs and Woollies. That does enable them to enter into arrangements or whatever it may be where prices are kept high and kept probably a little bit higher than where they need to be. At the moment the sentiment coming back is that they are well above what families can tolerate. I mean that is also just the net result of a cost of living crisis that has been largely fuelled by a reckless Government that has spent far too much money and fuelled inflation—reckless monetary policy that has pumped significant sums of money into the economy—and inevitably that has flowed into what is now persistently high inflation and a lot higher than what our peers have who have dropped away. We are still persistently high and groceries are no exception; in fact they are above the CPI and they don't really show any sign of abating. So look it is a good thing that we are here to encourage a bit more competition in what is a very stifled industry and it is generally supply-side constraints that are leading to this.I like the way that the Commerce Commission did stop covenants that prohibited the development of new supermarkets in certain areas. There needs to be developments of those new supermarkets. There are high entry barriers so breaking them down is a positive thing. I recall my time living in Sydney. There were numerous supermarkets around. Down the road there was a Woollies and it had a fantastic cheese room probably not one that you'd want to go into these days although I do note that prices over there were significantly cheaper due to the competition. When I went back there earlier this year I noted the same again. You walk into a New Zealand supermarket and you get a bit of a shock which is what I try and do at least once a month. I get out there and take the shopping list off my wife and go out there and fill up the trolley. Not only is it an excellent way to get a bit of publicity with a National Party jacket on my back looking like the everyday man it gives my wife a break and I get to understand what the current prices are.One of the good things about living in Sydney was that there were numerous supermarkets. You had your Coles you had your Woollies you had your ALDIs—you also had Costco. One of my best mates over there was going out to Costco. He signed up and he got the card—and TJ if you're watching this on the northern beaches I'm sure you enjoy going there and stocking up your freezer full of meat and he certainly did. But I was quite lucky where I lived in Edgecliff. There was an ALDI and a Coles very close by. So I'd go into the ALDI occasionally and top up—Simon Court: They'll never come to New Zealand while the foreign direct investment rules sterilise them.SAM UFFINDELL: And I like the point that's come out of the ACT party. They occasionally pipe up with some good rhetoric and that was good from Simon Court. There are challenging foreign direct investment rules and there are challenging Resource Management Act (RMA) rules. The RMA is extremely prohibitive in New Zealand and it really—Hon Rachel Brooking: Let's reform it.SAM UFFINDELL: "Let's reform it." we hear from the other side of the House. I agree; let's reform it. Let's just not reform it with what this Government is proposing. We will have the opportunity hopefully very soon. But the competition is as essential—it really is—and without it it's extremely difficult for everyday Kiwis to get ahead. We saw on the news tonight they're now paying over $600 a week in rent. It's gone up about 10 percent in the last year. I mean that's a really really tough environment for families. You've got core staples accommodation and food prices that keep going up.I just want to note to a point that Andrew Bayly very sensibly raised when he spoke and that's about ensuring that the appointment of the commissioner is the correct appointment. I've mentioned in this House before my reservation and trepidation about the appointment of people on to the board of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand probably lacking the experience the prudential understanding to govern what is one of our most important institutions. If we can't get it right there I'm not necessarily filled to the brim with confidence that we can get it right in this instance. But I note the Minister—and also the Minister who I was chatting with in the gym a little bit earlier this evening. We were talking about this bill. I know the Minister will be very keen to see this succeed as we all will be to make sure that the right appointment is made into the role of the commissioner because that is really important to give confidence to the sector to give confidence to the National Party which is in good faith backing this bill because we do want to see more competition. We do want to see the cost of living on staples come down—on everything but on things that are unavoidable: food groceries being absolutely essential—and also to make sure that when the commissioner does insert themselves into the market they do so in the right manner.Hopefully we get the nod in a few months' time and we can continue working with this commissioner. So let's all work together on this and make sure that we get the right person in there for continuity's sake and to ensure that the robustness of the system can continue. I support this bill. Thank you."