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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (27 February) . . Page.. 568 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

made about the monitoring of the amendments to the retail trading hours legislation, and it asked for the outcomes of the investigation of the feasibility of the entries to the local centre ideas competition. The Government is happy to provide this information when available, in conjunction with information on the progress of all the measures of the retail policy.

The committee also suggested encouraging the redevelopment of local centres by direct grants rather than by the 50 per cent remission of betterment. While remission of betterment is a very effective form of incentive, the Government acknowledges this suggestion and is giving it consideration. In addition, the variation to the Territory Plan for local centres currently being considered by the Planning and Environment Committee proposes additional uses for local centres to increase the opportunities for lessees of local centres to vary their leases for other uses.

In addition to the research being undertaken on the impacts of the trading hours amendments in accordance with commitments to the National Competition Council, the Hyndes report was quite specific in its findings and recommendations, which included restricting trading hours of supermarkets in the larger centres. The Government's objectives in enacting the amendments to the trading hours legislation were to meet a set of problems which were clearly demonstrable in relation to the economic viability of a number of neighbourhood shopping centres. The legislation was only one component of the Government's retail strategy for addressing those problems. We have always indicated that the legislation will be subject to an ongoing assessment by the Government and, as I indicated earlier, I will make available information on that assessment to the Assembly soon.

I note that Ms Horodny, the Greens representative on the committee, dissented from the report. She stated that she did not believe that the committee adequately addressed the terms of reference of the inquiry. I must express some sympathy for the comments Ms Horodny made in those dissenting remarks. A very large number of issues were referred to in the original terms of reference but very few of them were covered in great detail in the committee's final report.

Later this year I propose to report back to the Assembly on the progress of the implementation of all the elements of Striking a Balance. I want to thank the Planning and Environment Committee for the work done to date and the contribution of all members to what has been the very complex and difficult task of managing the current retail environment in Canberra to produce better results for customers and retailers and the community in general.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

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