Page 1597 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 7 May 2013
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stages of delivery. Releases at Dickson and Kingston have been scheduled to allow for the completion of broader master plans for those centres. New supermarkets will be constructed and opened in these locations over the next few years.
At Dickson, I look forward to seeing two full-line supermarkets, plus an ALDI, directly competing head-to-head. Supermarkets at Casey and Amaroo will for the first time provide an alternative for Gungahlin residents wishing to shop at full-line supermarkets in their district outside the town centre.
Meanwhile, in the local wholesaling market, Supabarn has recently established itself as an alternative supplier to other independent operators, while Costco opened its doors in 2011 for consumers wanting to purchase groceries in larger quantities.
For all of these reasons, the government will take a new approach to supermarket competition policy. While the site releases announced in May 2010 will proceed, in the future the regulation of which supermarket operators might acquire new supermarket sites released by the government will essentially be left to the ACCC. Accordingly, this approach supersedes that articulated by the 2010 supermarket competition policy implementation plan. However, the government will retain its longstanding prerogative to make direct sales of sites to particular operators should there be a compelling public interest in doing so.
The government response to the select committee reflects the select committee’s view and the broader community concern that the viability of local centres should be supported. It is clear that local centres are widely seen as the focal points of our suburbs, and that the convenience supermarkets and other shopping services provided by local centres are indeed strongly valued by many Canberrans.
While the government has not directly adopted some of the recommendations made by the select committee, largely for practical reasons, in most cases it has nonetheless sought to respond to the intentions of the committee.
An overriding message that emerged from the inquiry process was that more guidance should be provided in regard to the maximum scale of supermarket development desirable at local centres. To this end, the government response to the select committee notes that the recently released draft variation 304 to the territory plan proposes a new absolute maximum gross floor area for local centre supermarkets of 1,500 square metres. Within this absolute maximum, no more than 1,000 square metres of floor space may be “net selling area” accessible to the general public for the display and sale of goods.
Initial public consultation has recently closed on the draft variation. The government will consider the submissions received as it seeks to provide certainty to the community about local centre amenity, and investment certainty to the development industry and, of course, the supermarket operators themselves.
In keeping with the government’s broader commitment to reducing the red tape faced by businesses, our approach to regulating local centre supermarkets will not introduce significant or undue regulatory costs. Draft variation 304 further responds to the select
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