National Uturns on market studies legislation

WELLINGTON: The National Party has done a Uturn, supporting a Bill that will give the Commerce Commission the power to conduct market studies such as the proposed fuel price study.

That is despite openly opposing it in a recent select committee report.

National members on the committee said they ‘‘do not support the Bill in its current form’’ and they ‘‘recommend that the Bill not proceed’’.

But on Tuesday National MP Judith Collins told Parliament her party would now support the Commerce Amendment Bill.

‘‘We have decided in the National Party that we need to support this Bill because we do need to get these issues dealt with. We have seen rising petrol costs and diesel costs this year,’’ she said.

Last week Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told New Zealanders she believed they were being fleeced by fuel companies, and this legislation would mean the Commerce Commission could look into that.

Once passed, this legislation will enable the Commerce Commission to undertake ‘‘competition studies’’, research into the structure and behaviour of markets, and then report on those findings.

National opposed aspects of the Bill, mainly the idea of the Commerce Commission being able to launch investigations without having to get ministerial signoff first.

Ms Collins said compliance could be extremely costly.

‘‘We should not underestimate how debilitating the cost and the time involved in complying with requests from the Commerce Commission can be,’’ she said.

As a minister Ms Collins ordered the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to carry out a survey where oil companies were asked for information but did not have to hand it over — and she said the threat of that in itself drove prices down.

However, she said not all companies were open with their market information, naming Mobil and Gull stations specifically.

The National Party voted in support of the Bill, which passed its second reading on Tuesday night.