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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Wednesday, 23 June 2004) . . Page.. 2590 ..

the wrath of this law? I do not know. My concern about this amendment is that you might have protection in mind but you have not covered all the bases.

Mrs Dunne: Mr Speaker, I take a point of order under standing order 42. Mr Hargreaves should address the chair.

MR SPEAKER: Mr Hargreaves, address your comments through the chair.

MR HARGREAVES: I am forever in Mrs Dunne’s debt. I owe her the blood out of my veins. Mr Speaker, I ask the questions, through you, to Ms Dundas. She is all ears. She is a sackful of the things. Mr Speaker, this piece of legislation has holes in it that you could drive an ACTION bus through. I would like to see Ms Dundas close all of those gaps or pull the amendment, go away and think about it some more and bring it back.

Certainly, if you are all about trying to protect the community pharmacies, Ms Dundas, you have not protected them against the owners of the major supermarkets. You may have protected them against the IGAs, but you have not protected them against the major supermarket chains. You have not, not by a long shot. I have to say that you certainly have not protected them against small supermarket chains because of the example that the minister has just given, which is not going to be the last one. You need to be a bit more constructive and do a bit more homework before you come up with this sort of stuff.

MS TUCKER (10.09): I have looked at the latest version of this amendment and the Greens are feeling comfortable about supporting this version. I have listened to Mr Corbell and Mr Hargreaves and I just do not think that the matter is that complicated, but maybe it is. As far as I can see from the advice that I have received, we have here an amendment which says:

A registered pharmacist must not carry on a pharmacy business as owner on, inside or partly inside the premises of a supermarket.

Mr Hargreaves has expressed concern about Grace Bros. Unless Mr Grace is a pharmacist, I do not think that that is an issue. I do not see that it is that hard to know what is a supermarket or what is a chemist shop. From my understanding of legislation, there is a reasonable person test and if it got to a challenge, which Mr Corbell has said that it could or would next week, and Woolworths went to a court and said, “This chemist shop is a supermarket,” the debate would be about what is a chemist shop and what is a supermarket. I just do not think that it is that hard to tell.

The definition of a supermarket is that it is a large shop selling food and other household items where the selection of goods is organised on a self-serve basis. As we all know, the debate that accompanies legislation is used to interpret it. Let me say that from my perspective a supermarket is not a chemist shop. A supermarket is a place that has all sorts of other goods, many more goods than you would see in any pharmacy in Canberra. I do not believe that this is going to be a challenge to, say, the Watson Pharmacy which, I will put on the record for interpretation, has a post office and, I think, a newsagency. That, to me, is not a supermarket.

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