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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2255 ..

Mr Humphries: We will. We are going to talk to them about it.

MR MOORE: What I am saying to you is that if you refer this to the Planning and Environment Committee this morning, this afternoon you will not be in a position to pass that piece of legislation we have, other than perhaps to pass it in principle and refer it to the committee, and that will be perfectly acceptable. Then you are not undermining any committee process. But as soon as you pass it you will be undermining the committee processes of this Assembly, and I think that is something you should consider very carefully over the next few hours if you pass this motion.

MS HORODNY (12.11): It is indeed a very robust debate today, unlike what is happening in the retail industry in the ACT. It is interesting that the ALP delivers a double whammy on this issue. They will not support the moratorium. They do not think hours are an issue either. Ms McRae says, "Yes, of course these issues are important", and she bleeds for small business in the ACT, but, of course, she will not do anything because for some reason her hands are absolutely tied, and they were for the whole time that she was in government. Somehow she was unable to do absolutely anything about it.

I would like to read from the Business Review Weekly of last month which has an article titled "Building towards a retail overkill". In regard to retail space it is particularly interesting. That is one of the issues that Ms Tucker's motion asks the committee to look at. The article says:

Gerry Harvey has opened 53 Harvey Norman stores since 1982, building a retail chain that has annual sales of more than $1 billion. He wants more. Harvey plans to open another 13 stores in Australia in the next 12 months and is aiming for 85 outlets by the end of the 1990s. Why so many stores? "To sell more stuff," Harvey says.

Mr Whitecross: He employs people. He gives people jobs.

Mr Wood: Where would you buy your refrigerator?

MR SPEAKER: Order! Ms Horodny has the floor.

MS HORODNY: The article continues:

Shoppers remain nervous and tight-fisted.

Understandably so. It goes on:

The solution? Build more stores. Yes, retailers have been devising new marketing strategies and adding new product categories to rev up their sales ... retailers are falling back on the old strategy of opening new stores to generate sales growth.

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