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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (5 September) . . Page.. 3203 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

Mr Speaker, let me read out a few of the things that Choice concluded about what customers are looking for in supermarkets. No. 1 on the list is that they like supermarkets that are near to their home or their workplace. That is a very important factor. What is this Government doing? It is closing down supermarkets near the workplace of tens of thousands of Canberra citizens. Tens of thousands of Canberra citizens who work in the Belconnen Town Centre and the Tuggeranong Town Centre are going to have supermarkets convenient to where they work closed. That is the reality, Mr Speaker. So there are no marks on that criterion. But, Mr Speaker, it gets worse.

They are also closing down town centre supermarkets which are the local supermarket for people who live adjacent to the town centres, in places like Greenway and Bonython in Tuggeranong, Braddon and Reid in the city, and Emu Bank and Florey in Belconnen. Those people have had their local supermarket, the supermarket convenient to where they live, closed down by these people opposite at 7 o'clock at night. So much for their rights! When someone comes along and says, "We have a way of offering a service to these people", those opposite say, "No, we are not interested in businesses offering services to their customers. Close it down".

Mr Speaker, what else do people say? Another conclusion of the Choice survey is this: People are prepared to travel further to a store that offers a wide variety of products at competitive prices. In other words, Mr Speaker, people do not always want to go to the shop down the road. Sometimes people are willing to get in their car and drive or get on the bus and travel to get to a supermarket which offers a wide variety of products at competitive prices. Mr Speaker, what supermarkets do you think might offer a wide variety of products at competitive prices? Which supermarkets would they be? They are the ones in town centres, Mr Speaker. They are the ones that offer a wide variety of products, and they are the ones that offer competitive prices, Mr Speaker. They are the ones that the Government wants to close down at 7 o'clock at night.

Mr De Domenico: And Erindale, Calwell, Kippax, Jamison.

MR SPEAKER: Order!

MR WHITECROSS: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, may I take a point of order?

MR SPEAKER: Yes.

MR WHITECROSS: I cannot think of anything more disorderly, Mr Speaker, than a member of parliament, a Minister in fact, interjecting from somebody else's seat. I think he ought to be spoken to severely about that.

Mr De Domenico: I will come and interject from my own seat, Mr Whitecross.

MR SPEAKER: You will do nothing of the sort. Continue, Mr Whitecross.

MR WHITECROSS: Thank you, Mr Speaker. First of all, they flunk the convenience test, then they flunk - - -

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