Mike's Minute: Supermarket and price gouging policies are fanciful

So the battle of the supermarket beat-down unfolded for us lucky voters. 

Labour and National have gone head-to-head over how much head kicking they can do to, mainly, supermarkets. But seemingly in Labour's case it could be the financial sector i.e. banks, or air travel i.e. Air NZ, as well. 

Both party's ideas, let the record state, are fanciful. 

National are probably the worst offenders given: 

1) They have been in office virtually a full term and they have only now got to the business of putting out an actual policy. 

2) The trouble with the policy is it's merely a review by the Commerce Commission and because of that may never happen. 

3) No one has jawboned groceries like Nicola Willis, so her hot air outpaces any action. 

That’s before you get to the bit where it's entirely possible our perceived high prices at supermarkets is a result of a five million person market, not a lack of competition. 

The exact same grievances are aired almost daily in Australia. Their prices are "too high" and "rising", there "aren't enough supermarkets" etc, etc. 

As was pointed out to me the other day, Auckland actually has a lot of competition. Independents have a third of the market and it's not like the food price complaints are only coming from out of Auckland. 

As for Labour they say they'll look at large companies. They didn’t define "large". 

They said they'll look at excessive profits. They don’t define it other than to say the Commerce Commission has a formula. 

The Commerce Commission came up with the famous "$1 million a day" excess profit line for supermarkets, which may or may not actually be a thing. 

On air travel, when you ping Air NZ for excess prices from Nelson to Invercargill, that will affect the bottom line, increase their losses, and push them closer to insolvency. That’s a cool policy. 

Large company with excess prices, but losing money. What's the plan? Bankrupt them? 

So National look like a side that panicked because they talked a big game and delivered little. 

Labour is, once again, in the realm of theory and whiteboarding, with clickbait one-liners and no real-world workings of how any of this actually works or doesn’t. 

They both look like amateurs. 

They are both disappointing, which might explain why the third-party vote has increased so much.