John MacDonald: This shopper isn't buying the Kiwimart idea

Once upon a time, I might have thought that a government-owned supermarket chain sounded like a good idea. That was once upon a time. The Green Party, though, thinks it's a good idea. Announcing yesterday this policy to force the operators of 120 supermarkets and two distribution centres to sell-up to the government. The Government would spend $2.8 billion doing that, take those supermarkets and the distribution centres and set-up the state-owned 'Kiwimart' chain.AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME I might have once seen it as a good idea. Until I thought about all the other commercial operations the state has involved itself with. And how much that has really brought prices down for us consumers. Air NZ. Are those airfares any cheaper with the government being the majority shareholder? Aye? Electricity? You paying less for power with the government being the majority shareholder in Genesis Energy, Meridian Energy and Mercury? Kiwirail. Isn't amazing how cheap it is to travel by train with the government owning Kiwirail? See what I mean? And now we've got the Greens thinking that the government owning more than a hundred supermarkets around the country would mean cheaper groceries. I don't believe it for a minute. But Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick does. Saying: 'Two companies control what almost everyone in this country eats, and they take about a million dollars a day in excess profit out of our shopping baskets. That is money that should be in people's pockets.' Also saying: 'Everyone agrees we need competition in the grocery sector to drive down prices, but successive governments have failed to lure one. That's why we are announcing the real solution: a supermarket owned by all New Zealanders, for all New Zealanders.' Which all sounds brilliant. But here's the key reason why a state-owned supermarket chain wouldn't work. Anything operated by the state is more expensive. That's because government workers have better working conditions. Certainly better than your average supermarket worker. More leave. Higher wages. So more expensive to run. To the Greens' credit, they aren't falling into the trap of saying how much cheaper things would be at Kiwimart. That would make the idea even less credible. They are saying that they want to spend $2.8 billion of government money on something that we reckon might mean us paying less at the check-out. Eventually. I don't buy it. LISTEN ABOVE