Page 4415 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 14 October 2009
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The small independent stores located in local centres do not compete on price with the major chains and they do not claim or pretend to. But many have different or niche offerings. Independents can compete and can differentiate, but they do it not through price but through product diversity, quality of service, community support and convenience.
The Martin review recommends that the ACT government establish procedures and competition criteria to enable it to encourage the entry into the marketplace of suitable independent full-line chains, along with a greater number of Aldi stores in new and redeveloped group centres. The report recommends that the competition criteria be reviewed and evaluated every three years.
In order to implement the recommendations of the Martin review, the government is establishing a formal mechanism between ACTPLA, Treasury and the Chief Minister’s Department, which will be known as the Supermarket Competition Coordination Committee, which has been given the job of creating a strategic and transparent approach to planning and competition issues for the sector in growth areas and existing centres. I think this goes to the point that most particularly Mr Seselja and Ms Le Couteur have made. We acknowledge the need for a process to implement the recommendations. It is not enough to just say we accept these recommendations. We acknowledge certainly that the challenge that now confronts the government and the community is about the implementation of those recommendations. The government will take advice from the newly established Supermarket Competition Coordination Committee, a committee across government, and will give detailed consideration to the sorts of issues that Mr Seselja and Ms Le Couteur have raised today.
I am more than happy to offer briefings and consultation with the broader community, industry groups, the retail sector and members of this place in relation to the methodology that will be adopted and on issues such as Mr Seselja raises, most particularly in relation to the relationship which John Martin identified between Metcash and the independents. I accept it as a genuine issue, Mr Seselja, and I am happy to work through it.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (11.09): I will take up where the Chief Minister finished. It is interesting, recommendation 6 and this scrutiny of Metcash and who buys off Metcash. It has raised a great deal of angst in the community, and there are a number of groups that have already approached me, and Mr Seselja has already mentioned people who are afraid that they will be excluded from the tender on the basis of who they buy their goods from. I have a fax from a local businessman who says:
My business is owned by me, not Metcash. I run it as I think fit. I decide the range and the selling prices. IGA gives me the national buying power and does my promotions for me. I decide to make my store an IGA licensed store as it gives me greater strength to offer my customers a better deal.
It makes my business more responsive to the community I serve. My business is not controlled by Metcash and it is not a subsidiary of Metcash. Metcash national buying power and world class logistics help me compete in the market and serve the consumer better. I am a totally independent business just like Supabarn who also source a similar proportion to me from Metcash.
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