Page 4287 - Week 10 - Thursday, 22 September 2011
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MS LE COUTEUR: Thank you, Mr Seselja. I understand that one of the significant changes after negotiation between offices is that we have changed the reporting date. Thank you, Mr Seselja. I do have this motion. I thought you were doing another one which said that you deleted all the stuff above and—
Mr Seselja: Sorry, yes. Yes, it does delete it all. That is all that that one does not have.
MS LE COUTEUR: Yes, okay.
Mr Seselja: What is in front of you is the text of the motion.
MS LE COUTEUR: Right; thanks muchly. I am very pleased that we have a reporting date of April. From the point of view of giving the committee enough time to do its work and then the government enough time to give its response before this Assembly comes to an end due to an election next year, I think April is the most workable date of the possibilities. I think the wording at point 3 is better than it was.
I just have to say in summary that I regret we are not going to look so much at the ownership and the economic issues because these are very important. They are probably in the long run more important than the planning issues but we will look at them to some extent. I am very pleased that this Assembly is finally going to come to grips with supermarket policy. I look forward to a useful debate with community and supermarket operators leading to a better outcome for everyone in Canberra.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Education and Training and Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation) (10.39): I thank Mr Seselja and Ms Le Couteur for their contributions this morning. I will state at the outset that through our supermarket competition policy the ACT government has sought to achieve a competitive and diverse supermarket sector. Primarily the focus has been on increased competition designed to benefit the consumer. I think there is agreement across the chamber in relation to that policy goal. Undoubtedly, more operators and more stores increase choice and competition, and this invariably flows on in terms of reduced prices and reduces the weekly grocery bills for Canberrans.
Increased competition has been designed to benefit independent retailers and to give them a leg up into the market, a market that Ms Le Couteur has described as particularly dominated by two major national players. The use of this competition policy has allowed the ACT government to use the levers available to it, mainly land release and sale mechanisms, to facilitate this expansion by independent providers.
But undoubtedly this is not a clear-cut issue. There are many complexities in the supermarket competition policy space. There are big players, there are smaller players, there are new players, and there is an increasing number of subsidiary companies. There are issues with wholesaling and market dominance. There are many things to consider when it comes to supermarket competition. Undoubtedly, this is an important area of government policy. Upon taking charge of this area of government policy through the Economic Development portfolio, I am certainly mindful of the
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