Page 4895 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 11 November 2009
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your electorate must have been coming to you, because they have been coming to me and they have been coming to Mr Coe and saying, “We have problems with some of the recommendations of the Martin review.” But these are recommendations which, almost sight unseen, you said that you were going to adopt.
Mr Stanhope: Yes, but we are going to refine them. We said that as well.
Mrs DUNNE: So you are going to adopt them? Which thing is it? What we have here today is a complete diatribe, a senseless, rambling diatribe, from the Chief Minister, who has completely gone off the reservation today. I do not actually know what particular thing has brought him to this place, but it is clear that he has a vendetta against the IGA chains in the ACT. I do not know why. These are Canberra families running businesses that employ Canberrans. These are Canberra families who supply well-priced groceries to the families in their suburbs who use them. What we actually have here is a compete diatribe that goes against the facts.
The most recent supermarket establishment in the region was at Karabar, where Woolworths was specifically excluded because the ACCC said it was anticompetitive, and there was a competitive process where people bid to take over the supermarket at Karabar. What happened? The ACCC said it would be anticompetitive to have Woolworths in there. A whole lot of other people, including Supabarn and the Supa IGA, bid for the prize and one of them won the process, and we have a Supa IGA there.
Mr Stanhope: So is that the Liberal policy, is it? That’s the Liberal policy, is it? That’s interesting. So that’s your policy, is it? Now we have it. We now have the Liberal Party’s policy position.
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Stanhope! I cannot hear Mrs Dunne. Mrs Dunne has the floor.
Mr Stanhope: She had finished, Mr Speaker.
MRS DUNNE: You only wish, Chief Minister. What we saw with Karabar was a competitive process that allowed local supermarkets to bid for it, and a local supermarket won out. The Chief Minister seems to have a problem with that. I do not know; the Chief Minister seems to have a problem with IGA, and I think he needs to come clean here and tell the people of the ACT why he hates IGA and why he has a vendetta against the families in my electorate that run reputable supermarkets that contribute to the community and employ young kids in their first jobs. They keep people in employment; they provide services to the community; they provide well-priced groceries to the community; they support their local community. What is your problem with the IGA, Mr Stanhope? Come clean and tell us. Tell us what you have got against the families who run those supermarkets.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (6.14): I thank members for their contributions. Mr Stanhope’s comments displayed an extraordinary level of ignorance—an extraordinary level of ignorance. We can sometimes say that he either does not understand or he is being dishonest; it has got to be one or the other. But
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