We're Not Buying It

Author: Kate Cook

The MMA have had since October last year to work out the kinks of their Early Buyers Permit, yet they have fallen drastically short of making this a fair system for the market users who have gone to the trouble of getting one.

A lot can be achieved in the space of 10 months, but it seems that for the MMA the institution of a fair system for those who have bought a $10,000 permit to access the market early is not one of them. Fresh State were skeptical from the outset about the introduction of this Early Buyers Permit, not only because it unfairly prioritises businesses that can afford the fee, but because the systemof keeping people out of the market had not been fully thought through. We advised the MMA that we would be happy to discuss the issues of the permit when it was in it’s planning stages, but once it had been launched it was their responsibility to manage the effects and this is where they have got themselves into trouble.

The decision to implement the Early Buyers Permit was made because of the results of the Trading Hours Survey conducted by the MMA last year. This showed that the market was evenly divided in 3 different directions about the issue of changing market hours. Unfortunately, the MMA then made an illogical decision — despite divided responses to the survey (28% wanted later opening hours, 35% wanted earlier opening hours, and 37% wanted hours to stay the same), the MMA decided that listening to only one third of the market and ignoring the other 65% was the way to go.

In the time that this permit has been available in the market, the MMA has been secretive about the businesses that have signed up, but we understand that only 6 businesses have purchased an Early Buyers Permit, allowing them to access the market between the hours of 2:30am and 3:30am on weekdays. This should mean that during these hours there will be only 6 businesses on the buyers walk making purchases, but this is a far cry from what is actually happening. Wholesalers are still seeing a large amount of market users entering the trading areas early to make their purchases without a permit, which is in clear violation of the Early Buyers Permit rules.

The onus of enforcing this Early Buyers Permit cannot be passed onto the wholesalers. To ask them to turn down a buyer who cannot produce an Early Buyers Permit during these hours is not only ridiculous, but will end up being another inconsistently enforced system that hurts those refusing purchases from the permit-less market users, and would make a large aspect of the Market Relations Officers’ roles redundant. This unfair and easily avoidable issue was created by the MMA and must be solved by them. A clear path to fix this issue would be to remove the Early Buyers Permit from the market and refund those who purchased the $10,000 permit. As the ones in charge of this market the MMA need to be held accountable, and the solution of refunding the permits may be enough to ensure they think their systems through properly in the future.