Faafoi Kris: Commerce (Supermarket Adjudicator and Code of Conduct) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFaafoi Kris: Commerce (Supermarket Adjudicator and Code of Conduct) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 02 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8538. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana): It is with great interest that I have been listening to the contributions from the National side of the House tonight. Members on that side of the House almost ad nauseam stand and say “We are the friend of business. We are out there on the side of the punter.” yet in this instance the Government is not taking the side of business and it is not taking the side of the punter. But it should if it says what it says on a regular basis in this House which is “Back this bill.”This bill will give consumers and suppliers the ability to go head to head with these two big supermarket chains to get the access that they think is fair and reasonable. I think there is a fair degree of “head in the sand” on that side of the House. I will quote a couple of members. Kanwaljit Bakshi said this issue is not that big. I went to a reasonably sized business. I am not going to name that business in this House or say where it is due to that business’s fear that any publicity around this issue for it will come back and bite it in the bottom in terms of the supermarket duopoly that operates here in New Zealand. The business raised with me and a number of other Labour MPs when we went out and spoke to the business that it has major issues with the two supermarket chains. My colleague Clayton Cosgrove has already mentioned the situation with the tomato growers and because of the nature of the business that I visited I am not going to mention it because there are a small number of suppliers that it could potentially be. It was aghast at the behaviour of the two big supermarket chains. Again the kinds of things that they were being told especially around Christmas time were: “We are asked to supply quite a lot more product because of the time of year at a price that we can’t sustain.” That is the kind of thing that we are being told by businesses in New Zealand when we are visiting them so I cannot fathom that members on that side of the House who claim to be the friend of business can say that this is not a big issue and that this piece of legislation is not required because nothing wrong is happening here. It is obvious to me and to the number of businesses and suppliers to the big supermarket chains that I have visited that something is not right here.We have said to the Greens that we will support this piece of legislation to the select committee. We believe that there can be improvements because unlike members on that side of the House we believe this is an issue and it is an issue for business in New Zealand which—again I say—that party claims to represent in this House. I think it is slightly ironic that that party over there accuses us of not being the friend of business or small business or the Kiwi punter and it is saying that this piece of legislation is not required. Is that not strange? Is that not odd? National would rather have the status quo with the duopoly with the supermarket chains carry on and would rather that the small supplier that wants to break into that market has no or little power. Some of the bigger suppliers want to make sure that they can offer their product at a price that actually means they can cover their production costs and can get into that market but oh no members on that side of the House think that we do not need that—we do not need that. Simon O’Connor says “We’re not generally supportive of that.” Kanwaljit Bakshi says “This issue is not that big.” and they say that the market operates effectively. Well the market might operate effectively if you are one of the big supermarket chains: it operates just fine. But if you are one of those suppliers that want to get your product into those supermarkets then it does not operate fine at all and that is the feedback that we have been getting.Let us look at the other side of that equation and that is the consumers. There is an issue around choice there is the issue around price and we hear from members on the other side of the House that this is moralising around what happens in supermarkets and the choices that we get to make in supermarkets. Well let us look at people who cannot afford much in those supermarkets and look at the options that are and are not available to them and whether things can be better. Should we look at that? We believe on this side of the House that yes we should. But on that side of the House the answer is no. If they have got any guts to stand up to that duopoly they should support this bill.