Your Daily Ten@10 - 2026/088

This is edition 2026/088 of the Ten@10 newsletter.

Hi all,

This is the Ten@10, where I collate and summarise ten news items you generally won't see in the mainstream media.

Enjoy!

1. Democracy Briefing: The Regulator has confirmed the NZ economy is rigged

Bryce Edwards

• 📊 The Commerce Commission's first economy-wide competition study draws on 22 years of Stats NZ firm-level data to assess competitive conditions across New Zealand.
• ⚠️ The report identifies electricity, gas, financial services, insurance, telecommunications, and mining as the country's least competitive sectors.
• 📉 Commission Chair Dr John Small said market conditions favour larger incumbents and it is harder for smaller, newer businesses to displace them.
• 💰 Financial and insurance services show the strongest worsening competition trend across the entire 22-year period studied.
• 👥 Journalist Rob Stock noted competitive pressures were weakest in essential industries households cannot avoid doing business with.
• 🌍 OECD New Zealand desk head David Haugh told a Commerce Commission conference that in a small, remote economy competition does not emerge organically — it must be designed.
• 🏦 Haugh said a key priority is to reduce the profitability of banks , whose lending margins sit at the upper end of the OECD range.
• 💸 Bank profits extracted from New Zealand are being shipped to Sydney and Melbourne rather than recycled domestically, Haugh told the conference.
• ⚡ New Zealand generates around 96% of its electricity from renewables yet runs wholesale power prices among the highest in the OECD.
• 🏛️ Commerce Minister Cameron Brewer met executives from energy, banking, supermarkets, insurance, and telecommunications the night before the report's release.
• 🔍 The roundtable was hosted by lobbying firm Lillis Clark , whose principals are former senior staffers to National ministers under Key and English.
• 🔥 Political journalist Richard Harman has reported Lillis Clark is "said to write much of the Beehive policy" for the current government.
• 🔵 Anna Lillis of Lillis Clark is engaged to Trade Minister Todd McClay , deepening questions about the firm's proximity to government decision-making.
• 🧾 New Zealand has no lobbying register , making it impossible to fully reconstruct Lillis Clark's client list or the extent of its influence.
• 📰 Brewer's public response to the most significant competition diagnostic in living memory was a cheerful LinkedIn post and a conference promise to "watch this space".

Read More

This post is for subscribers only

Become a member to get access to all content

Subscribe now