Page 2014 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 May 2009

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(d) ensure that ACTPLA and Land Development Agency processes, including land sales and masterplanning, take the abovementioned ACCC recommendation on competition and the revised supermarket policy into account; and

(e) issue a small business impact statement, on the Giralang Shops development, as per the Labor-Greens Agreement.

The Greens are introducing this motion today because there have been many concerns raised about development plans for Giralang shops, and this has drawn our attention to the government’s supermarket—

MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Mrs Dunne): Ms Le Couteur, could you just sit down for a moment, please? Clerk, could you stop the clock? The previous debate was somewhat rowdy and robust, but Ms Le Couteur has a throat infection and will be struggling. So could I ask members who are having conversations to do so outside so that Ms Le Couteur can be heard without having to strain? I call Ms Le Couteur.

MS LE COUTEUR: Thank you, Madam Assistant Speaker. Yes, this is as loud as it gets, I am afraid. Hopefully, with the microphones you will be able to hear me.

The situation at Giralang has drawn our attention to the government’s supermarket policy and the inadequacies of some of ACTPLA’s processes to deal with complex planning issues covering multiple locations. Canberra has had problems with local shopping centres for many years. I live in Downer, a suburb which has lost its local shops, and there have been continuing concerns over many years about local shops. What is happening in Giralang seems to be just the latest episode in a long and dismal story.

What the Greens would like to see is that, instead of communities losing their local facilities, we build a more sustainable Canberra where people can walk or ride to their local shops and where local shops become part of their community, where locals can create businesses and where there is local employment.

Protecting our local economy in this troubled economic time is vital. To do this we need to protect our local neighbourhood shopping centres, support businesses that support local suppliers and also turn to local procurement. We all understand the importance to communities of maintaining their local shops. They are the hubs for local communities, just as schools are. People do really care about what happens in their suburbs. This was recently demonstrated by over 250 submissions being sent to ACTPLA regarding the Giralang shops development proposal, and almost 3,000 people signing a petition to oppose the Giralang shops development.

I do not want to focus too much on this particular proposal, and I agree that development applications should not be politicised. But I do think there are a number of policy issues that need attention, and I think it is quite useful to hear them and to look at a real case study.

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