Page 4133 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 21 September 2011

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video

---

(i) Coles and Woolworths dominate Canberra’s supermarket sales with 72.2 per cent, and that Woolworths alone has 51.6 per cent of ACT supermarket turnover;

(ii) significant retail developments at the airport, which falls outside of the ACT planning system, including a full line Woolworths supermarket;

(iii) Coles and Woolworths subsidiary companies in hardware, liquor, clothing, department stores etc, reflect this trend; and

(iv) that Coles and Woolworths have recently acquired most petrol station operators in the ACT; and

(2) calls on the Government to:

(a) review the implications of the recent approval of the supermarket at the Giralang local centre in light of the unintended consequences of this decision;

(b) suspend consideration of any applications not already determined for direct sales of land in existing shopping centres for the purpose of expansion of supermarket use, until an inquiry has been concluded and the Assembly has noted the Government response to an inquiry report;

(c) clarify the definition of GFA and its consistent application in all Government policy and decisions for all types of commercial operations;

(d) calculate, maintain and publish an inventory of the up-to-date retail GFA and supermarket GFA in the ACT, including the airport;

(e) ensure that ACTPLA’s review of the Territory Plan’s commercial zones codes:

(i) takes into account the Supermarket Competition Policy, and its application in local centres and other places;

(ii) clarifies the retail hierarchy in the Territory Plan; and

(iii) makes submissions to the codes review public unless otherwise requested;

(f) write to the Federal Minister for Transport seeking co-operative approach on retail development at the airport; and

(g) report back on these issues to the Assembly by the August 2012 sitting week.

I raise some significant issues about supermarket competition in the ACT in my motion today. When, in 2009, the government engaged Mr John Martin, former ACCC commissioner, to look at an appropriate supermarket competition policy for the ACT, it seemed that they were serious about addressing some of the competition issues in the ACT, finding sensible and appropriate ways to resolve the issues and

---

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video