Supermarkets are becoming a major campaign issue as the parties get into the business of attempting to be elected in November. After years of campaigning against National and its rich landlord mates, Labour now has the same mates, after Chris Hipkins announced it would be keeping the tax break for landlords it has so roundly lambasted the Government for delivering. Despite all the talk from economists, who’ve been saying the same thing for 3 years – the recovery is underway – it clearly is not. Finance Minister Nicola Willis lauded the pathetic 0.2% 2nd quarter GDP figure. She admitted however the first half of the year has been tough, with the Middle East crisis not helping. She tut tutted at economists who had forecast flat Q2 growth, but 0.2% is hardly a triumph. A new report calls for reform of what it calls the country’s non existent regulations for lobbyists after what it describes as a “tsunami” of vested-interest lobbying facing decision-makers. And we’re joined by Auckland University Commercial Law Professor Gehan Gunasekara who has written an op ed piece in Newsroom suggesting the Regulatory Standards Act is failing to deliver on its promise of better-quality legislation. He says the Act would likely not have prevented either problems with the fast-track planning laws or the winter energy payment fiasco, and safeguards meant to curb poor lawmaking are proving to be “mere ideological virtue-signalling.”