Chris Hipkins says Labour will outlaw price gouging if elected

Author: Ethan Manera,
Publish Date: Wed, 16 Sep 2026, 11:38am

Chris Hipkins says that the Labour Party will outlaw price gouging if elected to Government after November’s general election.

The Labour leader is expected to officially unveil the election policy at a convenience store in Wellington this morning, saying a handful of big companies are ripping off households, and there is currently no law preventing it.

The policy would make it illegal for large companies with significant market power to charge excessive prices for essential goods and services, or to pay unfairly low prices to suppliers.

The party also wants to embolden the Commerce Commission to investigate price gouging and support consumer groups and suppliers to do the same.

Companies found to be price gouging would be forced to pay penalties and “hand back every dollar of excess profit”, Labour’s policy states.

“Nearly one in three New Zealand households couldn’t afford enough food last year. Since National took office, the price of butter has gone up 58%, bread is up 45%, and mince is up 30%t,” the party’s commerce and consumer affairs spokeswoman, Arena Williams, said.

She said growers and suppliers were also doing it tough, and that the party intends to target the few “big players”.

“It won’t touch the 97% of New Zealand businesses that are small, like your local dairy or cafe.

“It also only applies in markets for essentials, like food, power, fuel, transport, telecommunications, banking, and insurance.’

Williams said Prime Minister Christopher Luxon promised to fix the cost of living, but said he is “too out of touch to realise that families can’t even afford the basics under his policies”.

The announcement was rushed out this morning, as the National Party dropped an announcement that it would pursue a structural separation of Foodstuffs to create “two genuinely competing nationwide grocery chains” if re-elected

Asked about National’s policy, Hipkins said his interpretation of the policy was that National would only pursue separation “if the Commerce Commission tells them to do it”.

“That’s not a commitment, it’s a, it’s another review, New Zealanders can’t eat a review,” he said.

National says its policy is subject to Commerce Commission approval.

Asked if Labour would also pursue market separation, Hipkins said his party would have further announcements to come as the election approaches.

“The announcement we’re making today is about how we stop big players using their dominant market position to overcharge consumers, it is the first of a series of announcements, we’ll have further announcements about how we increase competition,” he said.

Labour has been teasing the policy since the Green Party announced earlier this month its own policy to nationalise 120 pre-existing supermarkets to create a new Government-owned supermarket, “KiwiMart”.

Co-leaders Chlöe Swarbrick and Marama Davidson said the new nationalised supermarket chain would have a mandate to prioritise affordability, and would help break up the power of the current duopoly.

National’s finance spokeswoman Nicola Willis said the Green Party’s policy was reminiscent of communism.

Ethan Manera is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz.