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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 6 Hansard (22 May) . . Page.. 1596 ..

MRS CARNELL: Local shopping centres are not there for just the milk and the bread. They do provide other services to the people of their suburbs. It is certainly true that not all local shopping centres will survive. The retail market is a dynamic one. Things change, and things certainly have changed over the last 10 years. People in Canberra, and people probably everywhere in the world, are choosing more and more often to shop in one-stop shopping centres - in other words, in malls and large shopping centres. But that does not mean that they are not shopping with local retailers. I think in excess of 90 of the small businesses at Woden Plaza are owned and operated by local business operators. To go down the path proposed by the Greens and to say to Woden and the other centres that they may not expand for five years - a very arbitrary term - I think, would be really wrong. Equally, I think it would be similarly stupid to take the approach of those opposite and say, "Let them expand as much as they like, and we really do not care if the smaller centres are affected, and very adversely affected, by this approach".

When Woden Plaza management came to see us - I suppose that it must be as long as 12 months ago - about their proposed extension, the first thing we said to them was, "You are going to have to go out and do some studies, some surveys, about what sort of impact this would have on the local area". They did not go out and get it. Obviously, they commissioned independent entities to go out and get that sort of information. Mr Speaker, that is totally in line with our approach to this sort of venture. It is essential, Mr Speaker, that we get a balance between town centre shopping and local shopping centre shopping, and, of course, in between, neighbourhood and group centres as well. That is what our retail strategy will do. It certainly will not make us very popular with a number of entities. I suppose that any balancing position always does that. (Quorum formed)

Mr Speaker, this Government will be supporting competition in Canberra. It will be supporting an approach to retailing that will give people the choice that they obviously want. It will not be supporting an open slather approach, such as those opposite have, which will allow local businesses indiscriminately to close.

Ms McRae: Nonsense! Who put the Land Act in?

MRS CARNELL: Quite seriously, Mr Speaker, if Ms McRae believes that 24-hour trading and allowing Tuggeranong and Woden to expand indiscriminately, or as much as they like within the planning legislation, without a proper retail strategy, without some strategy in place to ensure that our local shopping centres have at least a fair go, she is really wrong, because it would cause those problems.

MR WHITECROSS (Leader of the Opposition) (11.56): Mrs Carnell has made a classic "Don't want to do", "have it all ways" speech. On the one hand she says that we have to throw obstacles in the way of expansion of major town centres like Woden and Tuggeranong to protect small business people, and on the other hand she says that she is not so upset about the expansion of Woden because she heard that there are some local small business people in Woden.

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