Page 4334 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 13 October 2009
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MS GALLAGHER: I am sorry; I do not have that detail in front of me, Ms Hunter. I am happy to pursue it and come back to the Assembly.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Seselja, a supplementary question?
MR SESELJA: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Have there been previous breaches of the Privacy Act by the government or Actew in disclosing the salaries of senior executives in the past?
MS GALLAGHER: Not that I am aware of. Again, I would be very surprised if there had been breaches that had not been brought to our attention, but I am happy to pursue that as well.
MR SPEAKER: Any further supplementary questions? Mr Smyth.
MR SMYTH: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Minister, until recently the wages of Actew executives have been published and have been reported widely. What changed?
MS GALLAGHER: I will have to take that on notice; it was prior to my becoming minister for this portfolio area. I will just have to take some advice on that. I do not necessarily believe everything Mr Smyth says, so I will just have a look at that first.
Supermarkets—competition policy
MS BURCH: My question is to the Chief Minister. Chief Minister, as Minister for Business and Economic Development, you recently released a report into competition in the ACT supermarket sector. What were the main findings of that report?
MR STANHOPE: I thank Ms Burch for her question. As Ms Burch has just indicated, the ACT government has released a report into the ACT’s supermarket competition policy, conducted by former ACCC commissioner Mr John Martin. At the same time I announced that the government would accept Mr Martin’s recommendations.
Mr Martin was appointed as an expert adviser to the ACT government’s review of supermarket competition policy in June 2009. It will come as no news to anyone in the chamber that two major supermarket chains—Woolworths and Coles—are the dominant forces in the ACT supermarket sector. They compete face to face in the four town centres, although not in the city centre. One of the two major chains operates in most of the territory’s group centres. Each group centre only has a single full-line supermarket. Woolworths are in a particularly strong position in the ACT, as members know, with 39 per cent of supermarket floor space and 51 per cent of turnover, with Coles having 31 per cent and Supabarn next at 10 per cent.
The independent supermarkets in Canberra that operate in group or town centres are the Supabarn stores in Canberra city, Wanniassa and Kaleen, plus three IGAs in Kingston, city centre east and Hawker. The latter, interestingly, a Supa IGA at Hawker, is currently expanding to just over 2,200 square metres. The third major force is the independent grocery retail sector, IGA, which is dominant at local centres,
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