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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2409 ..

Mr Osborne: What about the 300 people who are going to lose their jobs?

Mr Moore: What is the impact of that on the environment?

Mr Osborne: What about the families who are going to lose their house because of you foolishly falling for this stunt?

MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Moore and Mr Osborne, would you please remain silent while Ms Horodny is speaking.

Mr Osborne: It is garbage. It is rubbish that we are hearing from her, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: It may very well be but I have heard quite a bit of rubbish tonight from both sides of the chamber.

MS HORODNY: Another important reason why we need local centres is that it is the least mobile people in the community who rely on them. We hear this time and time again. The argument comes back that for many people the town centre is the local shop. But we are not talking about shutting down the shops in the town centres. We are talking about restricting their hours and, as Mr Humphries and Mr Stefaniak have said, it is still 85 hours per week. It is not 40, it is not 60, it is not 70; it is 85. If we sit back and do nothing the local shops will not be restricting their hours, they will be continuing to close down. Absolutely nothing has been done to date. The 20 supermarkets, like the one at Emu Ridge which is now not available to Emu Ridge residents, perhaps may re-open. Would that not be a wonderful thing?

As consumers we have to think about the bigger issues. We have to remember that the small shops cannot stay open for long hours and if we value them we have to give them a fair go. From the letters and phone calls that we have received small businesses in the town centres are very happy with this proposal. They are very happy to have streamlining of the shopping hours so that they can catch the custom in the more core hours. There has been a lot of hype around this issue in recent weeks and I think the record needs to be put straight. The major supermarkets have been getting their staff to walk around with clipboards asking customers to sign petitions.

Mr Moore: That is a perfectly reasonable democratic process.

MS HORODNY: We have all seen the wording of that petition. It has been going on in all supermarkets, Mr Moore, not just in the town centres. People are being asked questions like, "Can you sign this petition to stop me losing my job?".

Mr Osborne: It is true; 300 people are going to lose their jobs.

MS HORODNY: In Kaleen, Mr Osborne? In Dickson, Mr Osborne? Get your facts straight. Mr Osborne, you do not seem to understand that we are talking about town centres. Do you know the definition of a town centre? Dickson is not a town centre, Kaleen is not a town centre. People are also being told that the Government is trying to close all shops in Canberra at 4.00 pm. We have had several phone calls on this issue and, again, that was in places like Dickson and Kaleen. It is no wonder that

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