Jack Tame: Our new Grocery Commissioner needs to address the brutal, entrenched reality of the sector

He's only been in the job for a few weeks, but already the new Grocery Commissioner Pierre van Heerden is dealing with the brutal, entrenched reality of the sector that he's been charged with holding to account.

It was pretty extraordinary, really. Just amazing timing that on the very same day as online retailer Supie was put into voluntary administration, van Heerden published his top priorities for the Grocery Commissioner role.

I think there's one word that would probably summarise all those priorities- competition. 

The focus of the Grocery Commissioner has to be fostering a properly competitive environment across the grocery sector. And an environment where he or she cannot be afraid of calling out any flicker, any scintilla of anti-competitive behaviour by the supermarket duopoly.

I get it, I get that it's complex, I get that there are land covenants, wholesale supply setups- there are all sorts of contractual bits and pieces, all manner of different advantageous rules, systems and get-ups that help the main two players.

It's easy to be cynical about the effectiveness of our various Government Commissioners when the Grocery Commissioner role was established.

I, like many others, felt like it was a bit of cop-out. We questioned how effective that person could actually be.

But here's the thing- there was a huge weight, a massive weight of public support behind the Grocery Commissioner's mission.

Kiwis don't need any more Commerce Commission studies to tell us we are getting a crappy deal in aisle 3.

Pierre van Heerden, rest assured in the eyes of the public, cannot be more assertive. He cannot be too aggressive or too outspoken.

But there's one measure, one measure alone by which he and his role will be judged. And that measure is competition.

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