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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 6 Hansard (22 May) . . Page.. 1601 ..

MS HORODNY (continuing):

He also said:

The Government -

that is the previous Labor Government -

does not seem to want to intervene in this. I think they have to.

He believed that the Government at the time should have intervened. Now he says that the Government should not intervene. He went on to say:

They have proven that they can do it. They have done it before, and I think they are going to have to do it again.

Is it not interesting how things change when you get into government?

I think it was Mr Humphries who said that no-one is suggesting that the clock be turned back. Indeed, no-one is suggesting that the clock be turned back. There is an attitude shift to shopping, and there is a whole range of reasons why this is happening. Ms McRae said that the Lend Lease survey was a very good one. She puts a lot of emphasis on that survey, but I would not accept a Lend Lease survey. This is a huge problem because we are asking the fox to be in charge of the henhouse in this instance. What we are doing is saying that Lend Lease, who are proponents of a particular proposal, are doing a public survey on shopping and retail needs in the ACT. It is absolutely ridiculous. I very much look forward to the Government's strategy on this issue.

Ms McRae also said, "Well, where do people go? They go to the town centre". But why do we not ask ourselves why this is so? Let us look at how much work the Government has done in supporting the local shops. Zero. There has been no work done. There is no strategy in place. There is no effort. There is no energy. There is no support for small business in the ACT. Mr Moore is bringing on the issue of the Tenancy Tribunal and the whole way we do or do not protect our small businesses in the town centres. I suggest that we do not protect them at all. They need our protection. I do not know how you can claim that you are supporting small business in the ACT. I see no evidence at all of this.

A number of speakers have said, "The local shops are not attractive. They are not drawing people to them". Let us look at the politics of this. We are looking at four town centres with big national companies - Leda, Lend Lease, Westfield and the Canberra Centre. There is a lot of money and a lot of power in those centres. By this Assembly not supporting a moratorium, which is simply to give - - -

Mr De Domenico: There are a lot of jobs, too, in small businesses.

MS HORODNY: Yes, I will come to jobs in a second, if I have the time. We simply want to give breathing space to the small businesses and the local shopping centres for five years. It is not a long time. We are oversupplied already.

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