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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 14 Hansard (11 December) . . Page.. 4734 ..

Debate resumed.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, the other myth created by Ms Horodny in this debate is that Woolworths, I think she said, has a very high probability of being chosen to be the operator. I understand, although I have not seen them, that of the five expressions of interest that have been put in only one puts forward Woolworths as the operator. Three keep their options open. It seems to me that those people have at least a realistic likelihood; they want to see who will bid to operate the supermarket in their building if they get the right to go ahead and build it.

It also seems to me very logical that other people could be just as capable of outbidding Woolworths in that exercise and that Woolworths is not going to be a lay down misere to get that site. Consider the position, Ms Horodny. You have just won the right to build on the site. You know that Woolworths is across the road. You know that its competitors would very much like a central site like Manuka, servicing in effect the whole of a very affluent part of Canberra, namely, South Canberra. Would they not bid a lot of money for the right to operate a supermarket on that site? Would they care that there was a very small, inadequate Woolworths across the road, knowing that they would outperform that Woolworths three to one, four to one, or five to one in no time flat? So, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I think the suggestion that Woolworths has a very high probability of being chosen is quite misleading.

I make this comment without in any sense having looked at the expressions of interest so far, but I am told that Coles has put forward a very attractive expression of interest in respect of that site. I think that Ms Horodny is suggesting that somehow Woolworths has this sewn up. The suggestion here very clearly is that the Government has done a deal with Woolworths, that the Government is going to make sure that Woolworths gets the site, or that the circumstances conspire to make sure that Woolworths gets the site. That is either a most unfortunate choice of description or simply very naive. I do not believe that Woolworths has that site sewn up, and I do not believe that the process will be resolved except by a very spirited and competitive process, should the Assembly allow this process to proceed.

Ms Horodny also suggested, quite inaccurately, that there was no evaluation done by the Government up until now. Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Government has called for expressions of interest. There has been nothing to evaluate up until now. Only seven days ago did we get the documentation allowing us to start to evaluate. You had a promise from me that we would take no further steps in respect of that matter until we had had the debate today. So how was I supposed to evaluate it, except by having this issue resolved today?

There is a very extensive process that proceeds from here, and it is a more extensive process than the one usually engaged in on these matters. Not only is there the preliminary assessment process to follow on from here, not only is that yet to happen in this process involving extensive public consultation, but there is also an additional round of informal community consultation about the concepts that have been put forward.

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