Page 50 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 14 February 2012
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MR BARR: I am happy to provide this information to members. It is all publicly available, so there is no issue there. I can advise members that the current provision within north Canberra is only two full-line supermarkets—Supabarn in Civic, 3,700 square metres, and Woolworths at Dickson, 3,055 square metres. A useful comparison for members is Belconnen. With an estimated current population of 91,000 people, it boasts seven full-line supermarkets.
The existing shortfall in supermarkets based in Dickson is clearly evidenced by Woolworths’s very high turnover. In fact, it is reputed to be if not the highest then one of the highest in the country. The government’s analysis in relation to the decision on Dickson referred, of course, to the work undertaken by the late John Martin, who argued in his report that the collocation of an ALDI with an additional full-line operator would optimise consumer choice and energise price competition in the Dickson centre. It was the recommendation of the Martin review that this approach be followed.
I would also refer members to a report prepared for Coles in 2009 by consultants Deep End Services, who projected turnover levels for Coles under four separate scenarios. It showed that even if four supermarkets were located in the Dickson group centre, Coles’s turnover would be sustained above the generally accepted industry standard of $10,000 to $12,000 per square metre of supermarket space.
MS BRESNAN: Supplementary.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, Ms Bresnan.
MS BRESNAN: Minister, what government processes are followed in relation to determining market demand before your directorate announces that it will release new supermarket sites?
MR BARR: I indicated that ESDD have an established policy and an established formula for assessing that need. The government has indicated for some time that this would be our approach in relation to releasing new land for supermarkets. We undertook an extensive consultation process in relation to the Dickson proposal and in fact had an unprecedented level of community interest in terms of responding to the survey that was undertaken of 10,000 inner north households—a return rate of nearly 20 per cent on that survey and an overwhelming community demand for new supermarkets in Dickson.
Anyone who has spent time waiting in line at Dickson would know of the desperate need for new facilities in that group centre, and I commend the decision to move ahead with this. It was a commitment of mine in the 2008 election—one I am pleased to deliver on and one I am very pleased to face re-election on in 2012. If there is anyone in this place who disagrees with the need for more supermarkets in Dickson, come and stand with me and my constituents in Dickson, in line, at that Woolworths, one weekend—any weekend—and tell those people that they do not deserve another supermarket, more competition, lower prices and greater choice for consumers. That is what this government is about and that is what we are delivering in Dickson.
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