Page 4898 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 11 November 2009
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Mr Speaker, we, unlike the government, do not have a vendetta against IGAs, do not believe that they should be artificially constrained from bidding.
Ms Porter: Neither do we, Mr Seselja.
MR SESELJA: Ms Porter interjects, but the reality is that that is what this is about. That is what this is about. For no particular reason the government seem intent on excluding IGA from this process and, indeed, have gone further today and said they are against any open and transparent process.
Surely we should be looking to balance competition so we can ensure that we do not see the duopoly being extended more than it should be. However, we heard the rambling that went on when the Chief Minister said, “Actually, maybe this will see Coles and Woolies get more market share. Maybe this will give them more opportunities than they otherwise would have had.”
Can we assume from that that we will actually be seeing Coles and Woolies taking a larger market share as a result of some of these reforms? The Chief Minister needs to answer that because there was this back and forth. He was against Coles and Woolies and then he was for Coles and Woolies. But we know one thing clearly as a result of today’s debate: he is against competition, which includes small independent operators here in the ACT. He is against open and transparent processes in order to balance competition with best value for money for the community.
That is the balancing act that a responsible government would undertake and Jon Stanhope has ruled it out today. He has ruled it out through his ignorance because he simply does not understand that you could possibly balance those two issues. He has said that he is no longer about openness and transparency and certainly not as it applies to supermarkets.
Mr Speaker, this motion is an important motion that should be supported by the Assembly. It should be supported by the Assembly because it is about getting this process right. There is common ground. There is some common ground where we say that we have the same answer. We do want to see competition increased; we do want to see a more vibrant grocery sector here in the ACT; we do want to see downward pressure put on prices here in the ACT as a result of that.
There are a number of ways to achieve that. But part of what this government wants to do will not achieve that. As the ACCC says, it will work against that. It will work against competition. Instead of simply ignoring that and essentially denigrating the head of the ACCC, we should actually be listening to that advice and asking, “How can we make this better?”
That is what this motion is about. It is about getting competition according to, particularly, some of the advice from the ACCC. It is about increasing competition in the grocery sector here in the ACT. It is about ensuring that local Canberra businesses have the opportunity to survive, thrive and expand and to make a great contribution to our community through their local supermarkets, through bidding for larger
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