Page 2901 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 29 June 2011
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That will be the legacy if this building ever gets off the ground. That is the key, I think, to this part of the budget. It is something that should not be supported and cannot be supported, and the Canberra Liberals cannot support this ridiculous policy of the government. (Time expired.)
MR BARR (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Education and Training and Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation) (8.31): We have just lost 20 minutes of our life that we will never get back with that contribution from the Leader of the Opposition. I do not intend, through the next 2½ hours, to respond to each and every item as it is raised. I will conclude the debate at the end. But there is one thing that Mr Seselja said in his contribution that I do believe needs correcting. I have the information in front of me. It does relate to his comments about the position of Supabarn.
I have received an email from Supabarn management. They are very upset at being misrepresented by the Canberra Times. Anyone who has been in this place or has been in public life in Canberra for any period of time would note the propensity of the Canberra Times to misrepresent one’s position is very high. It happens very frequently. For the record, Mr James Koundouris, the development manager of the Supabarn group, has written indicating his concern that the Canberra Times reported that Supabarn believes that the ACT supermarket competition policy is a dud. He wrote:
Supabarn confirms that it supports the ACT supermarket policy and at no time was there ever a statement made to the Canberra Times to the contrary. Supabarn will be confirming this with the Canberra Times today.
I am sure the Canberra Times editorial policy is not to give the same prominence to corrections of their reporters’ all-too-frequent errors, but here is yet another example of where a local Canberra business has been verballed by the Canberra Times and repeated in this place by the Leader of the Opposition. He should check his facts. Perhaps if he had bothered just to put in a call to Supabarn before coming in and trumpeting his particular position tonight, maybe if even someone in his office had bothered to check that fact, it might not be as embarrassing for him tonight. But we have come to expect this sort of sloppy behaviour from the Leader of the Opposition. It is part of his method of operation. We have just heard 20 minutes of it. You cannot take anything he says seriously when he will not even fact-check the most simple of allegations. I have responded to that particular allegation in relation to Supabarn’s position.
When it comes to supermarket competition, the combination of policy leavers available, the ACCC and the ACT government, have said it will facilitate greater competition.
Opposition members interjecting—
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Mrs Dunne): Order, members!
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