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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2408 ..

MR SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order. Just one moment, please. Whilst I cannot say the same for the rest of you, Ms Horodny did hear all others in silence. I think the least we can do is respect her rights and listen to her speech in silence.

Mr Osborne: It is rubbish, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: Irrespective of whether or not it is rubbish, none of you by your interjections are impressing anybody in this building.

MS HORODNY: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Naturally, it is very appealing to the consumer to have these extraordinarily cheap costs, but what is the real cost? What is the real cost? What is the environmental cost of the extra transport in bringing meat in from Sydney instead of using the local abattoir?

Mr Osborne: Oh, sorry, sorry.

MS HORODNY: Mr Osborne, what is your response to that?

Mr Osborne: I am sorry that I want cheap groceries.

MS HORODNY: What is your response to that, Mr Osborne? These costs are not considered at all.

MR SPEAKER: Ms Horodny, do not ask rhetorical questions of other members, please.

Mr Osborne: I am sorry that I want cheap groceries. I apologise for that. I apologise that I want cheap groceries to feed my family. I apologise for that.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Ms Horodny, please continue.

MS HORODNY: What is the human cost of this increasing centralisation? I know Mr Osborne does not care. He claims he cares about jobs at Woolworths, but he does not care about the 30 jobs at the abattoir, for instance, and he does not care about the 700 jobs that already have been lost. It is a very simplistic argument there, and this is all in the name of efficiency.

When it is cheaper to use a sophisticated machine a job goes, and does the consumer win in the long run? I think not. I think we lose diversity; we lose community. We narrow the local economy because it is cheaper to buy everything from Sydney. Simple. The whole competition argument in both the private and public sectors at the moment is not about real competition. It is about efficiency. Efficiency in a narrow economic sense always favours the cheapest, the quickest or the one with the biggest turnover. What has been completely missing from the debate in both the public and private sectors is the human and environmental effects. What happens when we want to buy a loaf of bread and we have to get into a car and drive to a big supermarket? What happens when there are no local businesses left?

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