Dr Benno Blaschke: Supermarket reform shows promise

When Woolworths wanted to build a new supermarket in Christchurch, it took them four years and $3 million just to get permission. Did you know it takes an average of 18 months and costs $1 million to get permission to build a supermarket? To be clear, just to get permission – the building still comes later. Oh, and in some cases, permission took as long as four years.