Standing up for the shoppers
Consumer New Zealand chief Sue Chetwin is stepping down from her role as advocate for the New Zealand consumer. But, the former journalist tells Sarah Catherall she’ll continue battling for the public behind the scenes.
‘‘The new frontier of consumer interest is climate change and how we can show consumers what’s good and what’s not and whether they’ve been greenwashed.’’
Sue Chetwin
Sue Chetwin sits in front of bottles of sunscreen lined up like soldiers on the table in her Wellington office.
The day after she announced her departure as the head of Consumer New Zealand, her office released a scathing report on sunscreens, which revealed that almost half of the 20 products tested didn’t provide their claimed protections.
Of the nine products, three were big names – sunscreens made by the Cancer Society (which recalled the batch), Banana Boat and Sunsense.
‘‘I started this job talking about sunscreens and I’ll go out talking about sunscreens. I don’t know if that’s a good thing,’’ she says, laughing drily.
On a blazing hot November day when Oriental Parade beach is packed with beachgoers, Chetwin shakes her head and bemoans the fact that sunscreens are still not regulated.
In her 13 years as the chief excutive of Consumer New Zealand, she has made significant changes to consumer law reform including leading a campaign for mandatory sunscreen testing.
‘‘New Zealand has one of the highest rates of skin cancer and melanoma in the world, but the sunscreen standard remains voluntary,’’ she says.
Talking about failings like this one show Chetwin at her best. The 60-year-old has spent much of her career exposing problems, formerly as a journalist and then an editor, and since 2006, in her current role. ‘‘I’m one of these people that get outraged at things that happen in society.’’
Chetwin has always had a strong sense of justice. When she left Marlborough Girls’ College in the mid-70s, journalism was a natural career for her. She worked as a news reporter, and then an editor at Sunday News and the Sunday Star-Times from 1994 to 2003, where she was doggedly determined to chase important stories.
Big exposes under her editorship included Sunday News revealing that Juliet Hulme from the
Heavenly Creatures saga was a successful British crime writer under a pen name, Anne Perry.
‘‘We did some incredible stories in the SST too. I was very proud of a publication we did to celebrate the Millennium. We published original writing from some of the top writers and poets in the country, including a new poem from Janet Frame, which was very special. I also got to love sport being a Sunday editor. I got to understand the rugby and sport psyche and how important those stories were to a reader on Sunday.’’
Next she was employed by the New Zealand
Herald to prepare for the launch of its own Sunday newspaper. Meetings were held in secret, journalists were poached from rivals and, in 2004, the Herald on Sunday began in Auckland with
Chetwin at the helm, before she shifted to New Zealand Magazines as an editorial manager.
While there, she met her partner (now her second husband). However, he lived in Wellington with two teen daughters, and so Chetwin said she would only move back to the capital if there was a career opportunity. About this time, David Russell was retiring from Consumer NZ and Chetwin applied as his successor.
The job, she nods, seemed a natural fit. ‘‘I’ve always said there are strong parallels between being a consumer advocate and journalist. We do evidence-based research. At Consumer NZ, you’ve got government and corporates. How does the consumer voice get heard?’’
In her time at Consumer NZ she has fought for the consumer and championed the underdog and brought about changes. The South Auckland lowincome families who were preyed on by truck shops cruising around their neighbourhoods, offering them goods at credit, were finally reprieved when the truck shops became illegal.
Dodgy door-to-door sellers were banned thanks to her office’s four-year campaign. She brought about prohibitions on unfair contract terms, and instigated fairness in consumer credit contracts. Trade Me buyers now get the same protections as if they buy something from a shop. Consumers now know where fruit and vegetables come from because Chetwin’s office fought for mandatory labelling.
All this fighting and expose does mean she gets constant legal threats – not great for a not-for-profit organisation.
‘‘When we did the mystery shop around the financial advisors, that got chewy. Before we put anything out we research it to the nth degree, so we give our information to the people so they can have a say on it. We get all of their views, like the Cancer Society’s, and that’s a protection for us.’’ Chetwin has a few parting shots.
She is concerned that we are often misled about specials and deals, especially by big box retailers and supermarkets. Consumer NZ has monitored Briscoes, Kathmandu and Farmers.
‘‘It’s borderline that some of this behaviour could be in breach of the Fair Trading Act. Retailers have worked out that if something is 50 per cent off, they’ll buy it. New Zealanders love a special. Countdown showed me once some data that New Zealanders love a special more than other countries. I think that’s because things are more expensive here.’’
She talks about the services areas that need a clean up: notably insurance and gyms.
Her intellect and fixated determination is part of what defines her. However, these days she is more concerned about what she buys. Chetwin is impeccably stylish and prioritises whether something has been ethically made and if she actually needs it.
In her lifetime, Chetwin has watched the rise of consumption and consumerism, and now sees the backlash against both. Her 20-something stepdaughters both upcycle and recycle, and bike or walk everywhere.
Over 13 years, consumers’ priorities have changed, and her not-for-profit organisation has accordingly adjusted its focus. Climate change and greenwashing are hot consumer concerns.
‘‘The new frontier of consumer interest is climate change and how we can show consumers what’s good and what’s not and whether they’ve been greenwashed or not. It’s the same around privacy data too. When you give your data, where will your data will end up?"’
Until just a few years ago, Consumer NZ might advise consumers to opt for a cheaper product even if it only lasted for a short time before breaking and needing to be thrown out.
‘‘Your $50 toaster from the Warehouse or whatever is a good thing because you’re getting a cheap toaster and you can buy a new one. Now we would say, ‘you’re throwing that away’. Maybe spend a bit more – and manufacturers have to make products that can be repaired. This whole right to repairability and waste minimisation, we’re really looking hard at that now.’’
Chetwin’s voice rises. The fact that so many things break and can’t be repaired riles her. Consumer NZ will build a database showing the products that can be repaired and those that can’t.
Leaving the role in February, Chetwin says she is definitely not retiring. She is on three consumeroriented boards – the Food Standards Australia New Zealand, the Financial Markets Authority, the Banking Ombudsman Scheme – and is chairing a review of domain names run by Internet NZ.
She also wants to finish a law degree she started about a decade ago. ‘‘I want to leave on a high, and I want to do new things.’’