Nicola Willis and MBIE kept unfavourable supermarket break-up advice under wraps until shortly before the election

Detailed summary

The pinch is that homework was funded by the taxpayer and kept secret from the public until shortly before the election. In March 2025, Willis called a Sunday press conference to…

National's finance spokeswoman Nicola Willis and leader Christopher Luxon can point to extensive work done to support their supermarket break-up policy. Photo / Anna Heath.

National’s finance spokeswoman Nicola Willis made much of the fact she had done her homework when she surprised voters with a policy to break up Foodstuffs.

The pinch is that homework was funded by the taxpayer and kept secret from the public until shortly before the election.

In March 2025, Willis called a Sunday press conference to announce she was serious about potentially pushing the nuclear button and breaking up the grocery duopoly.

She said the Government would gather information from the sector to help it understand how it could support a new entrant to the market.

It would also commission specialist advice from consultancy Coriolis on ways the duopoly could be restructured to improve competition.

The news was big at the time. The Government was rolling out the red carpet for prospective new entrants, while signalling to the incumbents that it was prepared to intervene in the market if it didn’t see food price inflation abate.

Fast-forward a year, the Herald asked Willis what the Coriolis consultants recommended. She dismissed the question, saying, “We’ve had a range of advisers working on this and Coriolis is just one”.

The Herald requested a copy of the Coriolis advice under the Official Information Act (OIA).

Opening of the article, excerpted from NZ Herald Business. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.