The Costco proposal for Christchurch shows that getting government out of the way brings more competition and lower prices, ACT Leader David Seymour says.

The US bulk retail giant has applied under the Government’s fast-track laws to build its first South Island store on vacant land between Memorial Ave and Avonhead Rd, near the airport.

“We’re being proven correct in real time,” Seymour said.

Property investor and vehicle dealership owner Bruce Miles reportedly bought the 17.4 hectare site for more than $30 million in 2020.

Costco is a members only warehouse chain selling bulk groceries, electronics, appliances and household goods at discounted prices.

Membership costs $60 a year, or $55 for businesses. Its only New Zealand store opened in Auckland in 2022.

“For the last decade, other parties have taken an approach to business that could be summed up as ‘the beatings will continue until morale improves’,” Seymour said.

Earlier this year, as Associate Finance Minister, he issued guidelines aimed at making it easier for credible investors to open supermarkets here.

He said there were still huge barriers to entry, with competitors forced to deal with dozens of regulators and councils, spend millions and wait years for consents.

“It’s no wonder Costco is seeking to use the fast-track process to open another store,” Seymour said.

The Government also had to exempt Costco from wholesale supply obligations to encourage it into the market, he said.

ACT wants a one stop consenting shop, allowing new entrants to secure resource consents, liquor licences and other approvals through a single process in months rather than years.

The party would also recognise food labels from the UK, EU and US by default, removing the need for importers to produce special packaging runs or relabel individual products.

“That’s why the Dr Pepper you buy at the dairy has a little white sticker over the nutrition panel,” Seymour said.

He warned against breaking up the major supermarket chains.

“We can’t invite investors to New Zealand with one hand and threaten to break up their businesses with the other.”

Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis ruled out a structural separation of the supermarket duopoly in August last year, opting instead to bring supermarkets into the fast-track regime in the hope Costco would expand beyond Auckland.

A Christchurch Costco has been mooted for years.

A consent was granted in 2022 for a Costco warehouse at the Iport business park in Rolleston, though it was sought by the landowner rather than the company.

In 2023, Costco’s managing director Patrick Noone said the company was still looking at a few Christchurch locations and had no confirmed site.

In November last year, Costco agreed to buy 6.4 hectares of Kiwi Property’s fast-tracked Drury development in south Auckland for its second store, subject to planning and corporate approvals.