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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (5 September) . . Page.. 3207 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

He has his head in the sand. You can close a shop and it does not matter. None of the employment will disappear. That is how Mr De Domenico is in the real world - nowhere.

Mr Berry: That is why Mr Humphries is living with it.

MR WHITECROSS: But Mr Humphries has not been doing much better than Mr De Domenico on this. Mr Speaker, the other reason why it is so appalling is that we are talking about businesses which actually pay payroll tax, revenue to the Government. Mr Humphries said in his explanatory memorandum that this will not have any revenue impact. I cannot see how 106 - - -

Mr Moore: He should explain to us how he has not misled the Assembly on this.

MR WHITECROSS: Exactly, Mr Moore. There are 106 people off the payroll at Coles and he is saying that there is no revenue impact. Payroll taxpayers are no longer going to be paying payroll tax on 106 employees and Mr Humphries tells us an amazing story, saying that this will not affect the revenue of the Territory. It is a disgrace.

MR SPEAKER: The member's time has expired. I call Ms Horodny.

Mr Moore: I take a point of order, Mr Speaker. I was on my feet well before Ms Horodny. You would be familiar with the standing orders, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: Is that so?

Mr Whitecross: Yes. Absolutely.

Mr Moore: I am sorry about that, Ms Horodny, but that is the way it goes. We have a limited amount of time. Mr Speaker, I was on my feet from the time Mr Whitecross's time ended.

MR SPEAKER: If Mr Whitecross indicates that, proceed. I will not argue.

MR MOORE (6.02): Thank you, Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, this is indeed rushed legislation. It was rushed through in the first place and that is how we got this problem. That Minister, Gary Humphries, wound up with this problem. The hard part is trying to work out whether the problem was actually created by Mr Humphries or by Mr De Domenico. We are not quite sure where the incompetence lies. It seemed that Mr De Domenico introduced the Bill but then Mr Humphries took responsibility for it. It seems to me that the incompetence lies across both shoulders. The fact is that they managed to allow this loophole to get into this legislation.

A very serious issue is raised by this amendment today, Mr Speaker, that I do not think we have had enough time to consider, and that is the definition of a supermarket. In the original legislation, under "Interpretation", the only interpretation we have is that "large supermarket" means a supermarket that exceeds 400 square metres, but, in fact,

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