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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2427 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

Mr Osborne, who I know has commitments elsewhere at this moment, asked Mrs Carnell a very intelligent question about competition policy which Mrs Carnell fudged her way through and ignored. Some large supermarkets are being allowed to trade for unrestricted hours and other large supermarkets, just because of an arbitrary choice about geographic location made by Mr Humphries, are going to be told that they cannot trade. Two of the three supermarkets which compete with Woolworths are going to be told that they cannot trade. How is that for a triumph of competition policy? Mrs Carnell's answer to Mr Osborne was, "There are restricted trading hours elsewhere". This is a special sort of a restriction. This is a restriction which affects some players in a market and not others, and that is anti-competitive. That is what the competition policy was designed to eliminate. Mr Speaker, this is where we have come to in this city with this Government. This is where we have come to with the commitment of this Government to looking after business in this city. They have introduced laws which are anti-competitive.

A number of issues which have some impact on suburban shops are not being addressed by this legislation. The Liberals would have us all believe that it changed from day to night in 1992. Anyone who has been around the city for more than the last three years would know that the supermarket business has been changing progressively over the last 10 or 20 years. There have been some consistent trends, not just in the ACT but elsewhere, over that time which are affecting the viability of the suburban shops. There has been an expansion of size. How many suburban shops have expanded in size? How many suburban shops are larger than they were 30 years ago? "Lots" is the answer. They are responding to consumer demand for a wider range of product by offering more choice.

The group centre supermarkets have grown in status in the Canberra retail hierarchy in the last 30 years. They have done that because they offer bigger floor areas, more choice and, more recently, longer opening hours. These are things which have been going on for years, not just since 1992, as the Liberals would have you believe. One of the key things which make big supermarkets more attractive these days than small supermarkets is expanded range and larger offerings to the customers. One of the biggest problems for suburban supermarkets is that the customers now want to be able to wander up or down 10 or 12 aisles or more and pick out their favourite brand of olive oil, their favourite brand of toilet paper and their cat's favourite brand of cat food. They do not want to go to a shop with a small range. They want a big range, so they are voting with their feet. (Extension of time granted) These are other issues which I would submit have at least as much, and probably more, to do with the problems being faced by suburban shops than the issue of trading hours.

Mr Speaker, I have not even mentioned such social changes that have happened over the last 30 years as the greater participation in the work force of women and the implications of that for the viability of shops which trade only during the daytime hours. Quite a few issues are not being addressed. I think to selectively pull out trading hours and ignore all those other issues is a nonsense.

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