KEY POINTS:
Greens co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons wants the Commerce Commission to investigate the two major supermarket chains to ensure they are acting competitively and not increasing food prices to consumers' detriment.
In her speech at the Green Party's annual conference today, Ms Fitzsimons will call for the Commerce Commission to investigate pricing practices of the "duopoly" of the two main supermarket owners - Progressive Enterprises and Foodstuffs.
She said the party had been gathering research on recent food price rises - especially of dairy - to see where the extra money was going.
"In New Zealand, it's not all going to the farmers. There's a lot of clipping of the ticket going on between the farm gate and the consumer. So we are calling for a Commerce Commission investigation into the duopoly of the two main supermarket chains to see whether there is adequate competition and to see whether pricing policies are fair to the consumer."
Ms Fitzsimons said she would also ask Fonterra to show mercy by not passing on the full impact of global price increases for locally made goods. "You have to ask why it is that milk has increased so much when it's grown just down the road and processed by a New Zealand company. The farmers are not on the bones of their bums, and it's clearly because we are linked in with globalised food production that is making our dairy prices so high. Surely they can cover the cost of lower profits for that 4 per cent?"
Her call followed yesterday's announcement of a record payout of $7.90 per kilogram of milksolids.
Ms Fitzsimons also plans to discuss the emissions trading scheme, which the party is discussing with the Government after threatening to pull support. She said the scheme as it stood would be ineffective and unfair, and wanted farming brought into it earlier than the current 2013 date.
Prime Minister Helen Clark previously rejected calls to bring agriculture in earlier, saying she intended to stand by assurances to farmers that they would not be subject to it until 2013.
However, Ms Fitzsimons said the Government could now not pass the bill without Green Party support.
"Something has to happen on agriculture earlier than 2013. We've left them a variety of options to do it. I get the sense they will come up with some options on farming. I don't think they've got a lot of room to move. There's a lot of options to take, but if they just say, no, we won't move on farming, then they know where that is going to leave them."
She said possibilities included bringing forward the entry date of one of the two main agricultural emissions - methane or nitrous oxide - while keeping the other out until 2013. Another possibility was giving existing farms until 2013, but requiring future new farms to pay their costs from the outset.
The Green Party is reconsidering its support after the decision to defer the introduction of liquid fuels into the scheme and give large industry five more years of "free allocations" of emissions.
At its AGM today, members will discuss in a closed-door session its political positioning at the election. It is expected to indicate a preference for other parties with which it will work before the election, but not commit to any post-election deals.
It will be Nandor Tanczos' last AGM as a Green MP - he will leave at the election and gave a "farewell" speech last night.
